dope
Americannoun
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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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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)
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:
American swimmer Hunter Armstrong has said he "definitely" doesn't want to dope for the games, adding: "I personally have taken pride in getting as far as I can on natural God-given talent."
From BBC ● May 23, 2026
The latter has been handled by cartoons like the 2019 series “Harley Quinn,” which turns Superman into an overly confident dope.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 7, 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
Knowing Noodles, he probably would've freaked out and ran and snatched Needles up, not even realizing how dope it all was.
From "When I Was the Greatest" by Jason Reynolds
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But these elephants are no dopes: One of Ms. Argo’s coups is capturing a very well-organized raid—quietly executed, under cover of darkness—by a parade of males into a tomato plantation.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 13, 2026
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
"Shout-out to YouTubers who have been doing this for a long time and making us pros look like real dopes this week," he said in a recent segment.
From Salon ● Mar. 29, 2020
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
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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
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 tribunal ruled Halep had "intentionally" doped and gave her a four-year ban.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2024
Hospice can elicit images of “someone doped up and bedridden,” but it is not “just providing enough morphine to make it through the end,” Gurian said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 17, 2024
I got it doped out how we can even make some money on them rabbits.”
From "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
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These were officials from the International Testing Agency, and they were there before dawn to carry out a highly unusual doping control.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Remco Evenepoel criticised "inhuman" middle-of-the night doping tests at the Tour de France after winning stage 15.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
Valieva soon became embroiled in a doping scandal that eventually landed her a four-year ban.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026
The extremely thin silicon films still allow effective control by the transistor gate, while the high doping levels help reduce parasitic contact resistance.
From Science Daily ● May 30, 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
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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.