doven

1. dialectalparticiplepastpast participle of dive

   Knowin’ what I do know, divin’ deep into the heights and depths of men’s naters as I have doven, I knew that this would break Serepta’s chains.

   1879, Josiah Allen’s Wife [pen name; Marietta Holley], “How Serepta Carried the Meetin’ House”, in Josiah Allen’s Wife as a P.A. and P.I. Samantha at the Centennial. […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, page 242

   4 more examples

   “Now,” said Bobbit, with an amazing chuckle for a boy who was going to give to-morrow’s dinner to another boy, “you walk right along as ef you was going to walk a mile, and when you see I ’ve doven — dive!” The next they knew after that, Bobbit had “doven” into the old engine boiler, and they after him.

   1870 August, “Bobbit’s Hotel”, in J[ohn] T[ownsend] Trowbridge, Lucy Larcom, editors, Our Young Folks. An Illustrated Magazine for Boys and Girls., volume IV, number VIII, Boston: Fields, Osgood, & Co., […], page 484

   I didn’t go onto the heights and depths of filosofy, on which I so many times had flew and doven;[…]But not studyin’ it out as I have, not divin’ into the subject so deep as I have doven, it galled Tirzah Ann to see Mrs. Skidmore put on such airs.

   1879, Josiah Allen’s Wife [pen name; Marietta Holley], “Tirzah Ann’s Summer Strip”, in Peterson’s Magazine, volume seventy-sixth, […] Illman Brothers, pages 40 (part I) and 120 (part II), column 2

   But I sez, “Nobody can dive into deeper depths than I have doven to-day.” / “The ocean?” sez she. / “Oceans of anxiety,” sez I, “rivers of grief.”

   1911, Josiah Allen’s Wife (Marietta Holley), “In Which I Continue My Search for Josiah Through Dreamland, Huntin’ for Him in Vain, and Return to Bildad’s at Night, Weary and Despairin’”, in Samantha at Coney Island and a Thousand Other Islands, New York: The Christian Herald, […], page 283

   And in divin’ back into history as fur as I’ve doven I want to give suitable credit to my chumb, Uncle Simon Bentley.[…]I wuz astounded to see how deep Uncle Sime had doven into the great mysteries of human existence, not but what I’d have thought it out myself, if I’d had time from fambly cares.

   1914, Marietta Holley, “In Which I Resolve to Write a Book”, in Josiah Allen on the Woman Question, Fleming H. Revell Company, pages 16 and 20

present singular third person dovens · participle present dovening · participle past dovened · past dovened

1. alternativeAlternative form of daven.

   We played at this intelligence base, and then dovened Maariv, again word by word.

   1974, Jewish Life, page 12, column 2

   3 more examples

   I vatched^([sic]) through the portholes as they would doven and chant / ‘Hey, mein Liebe, heyyyy.’

   1967, “The Good-Good Culture”, in John Cohen, editor, The Essential Lenny Bruce, Panther Books Ltd, published 1975, →ISBN, page 267

   THERE once was a king, old and a little crazy, who summoned the Chief Rabbi of his kingdom. “Rabbi,” he said, “there’s one thing I’d like to see. I want you to teach my pet monkey how to doven.”

   2006, William Novak, Moshe Waldoks, editors, The Big Book of Jewish Humor, Collins, →ISBN, page 233

   They knew how to doven, to pray, but they didn’t understand what the heck they were reading. And some of them couldn’t doven either!

   2010, “Joshua (Joe) Gershman”, in Seemah C. Berson, editor, I Have a Story to Tell You, Waterloo, Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, →ISBN, page 178