dose
Americannoun
-
doses
plural
-
a quantity of medicine prescribed to be taken at one time.
-
a substance, situation, or quantity of anything analogous to medicine, especially of something disagreeable.
Failing the exam was a hard dose to swallow.
-
an amount of sugar added in the production of champagne.
-
Physics.
-
Also called absorbed dose. the quantity of ionizing radiation absorbed by a unit mass of matter, especially living tissue, measured in grays: although increasingly disfavored, in the U.S. an absorbed dose may still be measured in rads.
-
-
Slang. a case of gonorrhea or syphilis.
verb (used with object)
-
doses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dosed,
past participle, past
-
dosing
present participle
-
to administer in or apportion for doses.
-
to give a dose of medicine to.
-
to add sugar to (champagne) during production.
verb (used without object)
-
doses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dosed,
past participle, past
-
dosing
present participle
noun
-
med a specific quantity of a therapeutic drug or agent taken at any one time or at specified intervals
-
informal something unpleasant to experience
a dose of influenza
-
Also called: dosage. the total energy of ionizing radiation absorbed by unit mass of material, esp of living tissue; usually measured in grays (SI unit) or rads
-
Also called: dosage. a small amount of syrup added to wine, esp sparkling wine, when the sediment is removed and the bottle is corked
-
slang a venereal infection, esp gonorrhoea
-
very quickly indeed
verb
-
to administer a dose or doses to (someone)
-
med to give (a therapeutic drug or agent) in appropriate quantities
-
(often foll by up) to give (someone, esp oneself) drugs, medicine, etc, esp in large quantities
-
to add syrup to (wine) during bottling
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dosesimple
-
dosessimple
-
have dosedperfect
-
has dosedperfect
-
am dosingprogressive
-
are dosingprogressive
-
is dosingprogressive
-
have been dosingperfect progressive
-
has been dosingperfect progressive
Past
-
dosedsimple
-
had dosedperfect
-
was dosingprogressive
-
were dosingprogressive
-
had been dosingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dose
First recorded in 1590–1600; French , from Late Latin dosis, from Greek dósis “a giving, gift,” derivative of didónai “to give”
Explanation
A dose is the amount of medicine you're supposed to take. A bottle of aspirin has the recommended dose printed on its side. When your doctor prescribes medication, she tells you what dose you should take, whether it's one pill twice a day or two teaspoons just before bedtime. You can also get a dose of something else: having x-rays gives you a small dose of radiation, for example, and watching the news instead of your favorite cartoon can be said to give you a dose of reality. The Greek root of dose is dosis, "a portion prescribed."
Vocabulary lists containing dose
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
What all these funds have in common is that they take an already heavy dose and make it extra-strength.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Big picture: The economy entered the fourth quarter with a heady dose of momentum.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 29, 2026
Despite being given the highest possible dose of pain relief, her mother, Stephanie Kent, said she could see her daughter "gasping and wincing in pain".
From BBC ● Oct. 21, 2026
For adults, the recommended daily dose of creatine is three to five grams.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 19, 2026
“Doc Hawkins had some antivenom at his office. He’s giving Mama her first dose right now.”
From "Stella by Starlight" by Sharon M. Draper
She survived her scheduled execution after receiving two doses of pentobarbital, a sedative that more than a dozen states use for capital punishment, in September.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Pike is the only inmate to ever survive after being injected with lethal doses of execution drugs, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2026
Pike survived her scheduled execution after receiving two doses of pentobarbital, a sedative that more than a dozen states use for capital punishment, in September.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
Researchers at Keck Medicine of USC found that even when high doses of omega-3s successfully reached the brain, they did not produce measurable improvements in memory, thinking abilities, or protection against brain shrinkage.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 22, 2026
In a patient who gets only one antibiotic or inadequate doses of several, or who doesn’t take his medicine as instructed, the drug-susceptible bacilli may die off but the drug-resistant mutants will flourish.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
Simpson said the agency indicated it wouldn’t require new subjects to be dosed for a confirmatory study, only that the original 13 be followed longer to monitor neurocognitive development.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
Intellia had disclosed late last month that the patient, a man in his early 80s with a heart disease called ATTR-cardiomyopathy, had been hospitalized due to liver problems weeks after being dosed with nex-z.
From Barron's ● Nov. 7, 2025
This summer's recovery from back surgery has been more dosed in reality, though.
From BBC ● Apr. 10, 2025
The pins, and the dosed paper that resulted, followed a compact grid, which took the form of five tight rows of 20 columns each—the “5-20” pattern slyly referred to above.
From Slate ● Apr. 17, 2024
However, Denna had been liberally dosed with charcoal, which effectively reduced that by a half.
From "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss
One analysis of 24 studies found D3 was more effective than D2 at improving overall vitamin D status, while another focused on frequent dosing reached a similar conclusion.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 8, 2026
The treatment involves extensive preparation and support before and after dosing sessions.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
It turned out farmers had also been dosing their cattle to enable them to plow through the heat of the midday sun.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 12, 2026
Future studies are expected to focus on orthotopic validation, optimizing dosing strategies, tracking nitric oxide activity over longer periods, and investigating the underlying mechanisms in additional central nervous system tumor models.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 27, 2026
Maman Thibaut has been dosing Amélie with café au lait at the big kitchen table.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
