dose
Americannoun
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a quantity of medicine prescribed to be taken at one time.
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a substance, situation, or quantity of anything analogous to medicine, especially of something disagreeable.
Failing the exam was a hard dose to swallow.
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an amount of sugar added in the production of champagne.
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Physics.
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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.
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Slang. a case of gonorrhea or syphilis.
verb (used with object)
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to administer in or apportion for doses.
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to give a dose of medicine to.
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to add sugar to (champagne) during production.
verb (used without object)
noun
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med a specific quantity of a therapeutic drug or agent taken at any one time or at specified intervals
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informal something unpleasant to experience
a dose of influenza
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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
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Also called: dosage. a small amount of syrup added to wine, esp sparkling wine, when the sediment is removed and the bottle is corked
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slang a venereal infection, esp gonorrhoea
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very quickly indeed
verb
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to administer a dose or doses to (someone)
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med to give (a therapeutic drug or agent) in appropriate quantities
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(often foll by up) to give (someone, esp oneself) drugs, medicine, etc, esp in large quantities
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to add syrup to (wine) during bottling
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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dosesimple
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dosessimple
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have dosedperfect
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has dosedperfect
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am dosingprogressive
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are dosingprogressive
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is dosingprogressive
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have been dosingperfect progressive
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has been dosingperfect progressive
Past
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dosedsimple
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had dosedperfect
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was dosingprogressive
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were dosingprogressive
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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:
Ms. Goldberg supplies another dose of sugar with an ending that’s simultaneously sweet, predictable and implausible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
The data showed that two of the most common mistakes were taking the medication daily instead of weekly and starting immediately with the highest dose instead of following the recommended step by step schedule.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
The price will also partly depend on the dose taken, with the higher doses costing more.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2026
When working with older adults, Batsis said he increases the dose far more slowly than is recommended on the drug’s label to try to limit any side effects.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 25, 2026
Many of the microscopic parasites that produced malaria would survive the sublethal dose and produce offspring capable of withstanding a full dose of the medicine.
From "An American Plague: The True and Terrifying Story of the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793" by Jim Murphy
The Oxford Covid vaccine was estimated to have saved six million lives in the first year it was used around the world and hundreds of millions of doses have been taken.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
It has manufactured and stockpiled around 620,000 doses.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026
Normal mice treated with high doses of SSRIs also developed thickened valves.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
It’s a trim book—you can read it in a couple of sittings or on a long flight—but it’s perhaps best enjoyed in small doses, a chapter or two at a time.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026
The latter may kill the cells outright, whereas the small doses allow some to survive, though in a damaged condition.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
Direct-to-patient likely won’t be a sales channel for complex and pricey biotech drugs, particularly those dosed in healthcare facilities, according to industry officials and analysts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025
Intellia said that the patient who died had been dosed with nex-z on Sept. 30.
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
The man made no answer and kept his eyes dosed, but he lifted his hand again and pointed onward with his thumb.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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
Cambridge, Mass.-based Beam Therapeutics developed an experimental treatment for a rare inherited disease that damages the lungs and liver, dosing its first patient in 2024.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
"It could improve vaccine formulation and dosing, potentially explain why some patients respond better to vaccines than others and guide strategies for making vaccines more effective."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 9, 2026
For patients who exercise an hour or more every day, he has been able to move them to longer dosing intervals once they hit their goal weight, according to his research.
From MarketWatch ● May 18, 2026
Despite her dosing him with the cherry pectoral every few hours, and rubbing his chest with camphor oil, he had still hacked most of the night, sometimes having trouble catching his breath.
From "Stella by Starlight" by Sharon M. Draper
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.
