ˈdōd.]ij, -ōt], ]ēj\ noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English, from doten to dote + -age
1.
a. : feebleness or impairment of understanding and reason : mental infirmity
I may venture to assert, without exposing myself to the charge of dotage — William Cowper
b. : advanced age attended by enfeebled mentality and childishness — called also second childhood
2. : an utterance or a work showing a writer's or artist's feebleness of mind or execution from old age
more important than Galsworthy's increasingly desiccated social propanganda and the dotages of Bernard Shaw — F.B.Millett
3. archaic
a. : a weak and foolish or silly doting : a blind fondness or affection
b. : the object of such fondness or affection