dope
Americannoun
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dopes
plural
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any thick liquid or pasty preparation, as a lubricant, used in preparing a surface.
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an absorbent material used to absorb and hold a liquid, as in the manufacture of dynamite.
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Aeronautics.
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any of various varnishlike products for coating a fabric, as of airplane wings, in order to make it waterproof, stronger, etc.
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a similar product used to coat the fabric of a balloon to reduce gas leakage.
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Slang.
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any narcotic or narcoticlike drug taken to induce euphoria or satisfy addiction.
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any illicit drug.
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a drug, as a steroid, given to an athlete to boost athletic performance.
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a narcotic or other drug given surreptitiously to a horse to improve or retard its performance in a race.
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Slang. information, data, or news.
What's the latest dope on the strike?
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Informal. a stupid or unresponsive person.
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Southern U.S. (chiefly South Atlantic States). a carbonated, flavored, and sweetened drink, especially cola-flavored; soda pop.
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North Central U.S. (chiefly Ohio). syrup used as a topping for ice cream.
verb (used with object)
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dopes,
present (3rd person singular)
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doped,
past participle, past
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doping
present participle
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Slang.
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to affect with dope or drugs (usually followed by up orout ).
I was so doped up that I couldn't remember a thing.
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to add a narcotic or other drug to.
My brother doped my food as a prank.
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to give a drug to (an athlete or horse), so as to affect performance in a race or other competition.
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to apply or treat with dope.
In the winter, we doped the fabric of the airplanes in the hangar.
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Electronics. to add or treat (a pure semiconductor) with a dopant.
verb (used without object)
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dopes,
present (3rd person singular)
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doped,
past participle, past
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doping
present participle
adjective
verb phrase
noun
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any of a number of preparations made by dissolving cellulose derivatives in a volatile solvent, applied to fabric in order to improve strength, tautness, etc
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an additive used to improve the properties of something, such as an antiknock compound added to petrol
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a thick liquid, such as a lubricant, applied to a surface
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a combustible absorbent material, such as sawdust or wood pulp, used to hold the nitroglycerine in dynamite
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slang
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any illegal drug, usually cannabis
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( as modifier )
a dope fiend
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a drug administered to a racehorse or greyhound to affect its performance
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informal a person considered to be stupid or slow-witted
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informal news or facts, esp confidential information
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informal a photographic developing solution
verb
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electronics to add impurities to (a semiconductor) in order to produce or modify its properties
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to apply or add a dopant to
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to administer a drug to (oneself or another)
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(intr) to take dope
adjective
Usage
What else does dope mean? A dope can be a fool, a slang term for "excellent," or refer to drugs like marijuana. Doping is using performance-enhancing drugs in sports.
Regionalisms
See soda pop.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dopesimple
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dopessimple
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have dopedperfect
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has dopedperfect
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am dopingprogressive
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are dopingprogressive
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is dopingprogressive
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have been dopingperfect progressive
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has been dopingperfect progressive
Past
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dopedsimple
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had dopedperfect
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was dopingprogressive
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were dopingprogressive
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had been dopingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dope
First recorded in 1840–50; from Dutch doop (dialect) “sauce,” derivative of dopen “to dip, baptize”; cf. deep ( def. ), dip 1
Vocabulary lists containing dope
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:
We’ve already made fun of Eric Schmitt in this edition, and we will continue to do so later on, because it’s rare that someone is caught so red-handed being a dope.
From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2026
He tells the BBC that while there are clear failures with the Olympics' anti-doping protocols, the answer is reforming the system, not to dope.
From BBC ● May 23, 2026
This type of silk is made inside a spider's silk gland, where silk proteins are stored as a thick liquid called "silk dope."
From Science Daily ● Feb. 6, 2026
“I’ll be sending my lawyers to sue this poor, pathetic, talentless, dope of an M.C., and suing him for plenty$,” he wrote.
From Salon ● Feb. 2, 2026
If he kept the old raggedy one he had, no one would ever suspect how dope his house was on the inside.
From "The Boy in the Black Suit" by Jason Reynolds
But you might have no idea if you’ve been listening to hockey-ignorant media dopes like me lather attention on the incoming World Cup and the East Coast-pleasing, media-hub Knicks-Spurs NBA final.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
To me, the celebration phase is the most heinous phase, because we have people who really know better who are acting like dopes, and it's hurting us.
From Salon ● Sep. 30, 2022
It’s not much of a fight — and Josh isn’t much of a catch — but one of Dunham’s talents is her ability to capture the allure of heartbreakers, scuzzballs and dopes.
From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2022
This is where I’ll put on my tortilla-historian sombrero and say something you might find unbelievable: Tortilla-tossing has a long, strange history in California that’s almost never racist — until dopes make it so.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 24, 2021
I partly blame all those dopes that clap their heads off--they'd foul up anybody, if you gave them a chance.
From "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger
The head of the World Anti-Doping Agency said on Thursday he was "uncomfortable" with the presence at the 2026 Winter Olympics of the coach of the doped Russian skater Kamila Valieva.
From Barron's ● Feb. 5, 2026
Because of the large size of the W6+ dopant, the perovskite has a larger lattice volume, which means it can take up more water molecules than those doped with other cations such as small Mo6+.
From Science Daily ● May 29, 2024
The chemical composition of the crystals, plucked from rocks in Australia, hint that they formed from magmas doped with freshwater, a team of scientists argues.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 30, 2024
An independent report, instigated by the ITIA, ruled Halep had "intentionally" doped and handed out a four-year ban.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2024
Rattlesnakes and doped semiconductors detect infrared radiation perfectly well.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
Kratochvilova's record has been questioned, with claims it was assisted by her country's doping regime that existed at the time, something she has strenuously denied.
From BBC ● Sep. 18, 2026
Navigating a career-threatening doping case, surviving the ferocious Eubank rivalry and acrimoniously splitting from long-time promoter Eddie Hearn transformed him from 'Nigel's boy' into one of British boxing's most polarising headliners.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
This technique, called "doping," involves introducing a small amount of another material to produce specific properties.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
Still: Rigorous testing feels like a necessary inconvenience at a time when records set in doping eras continue to be shattered—not just by Pogacar and Vingegaard, but by other riders in the field.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
When they had at last got it down from the doping ground, there was another hitch.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Definitions 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.
