dose

UK: /ˈdəʊs/ US: /doʊs/ ,(dōs)

Inflections of 'dose' (v): (⇒ conjugate)

doses

v 3rd person singular

dosing

v pres p

dosed

v past

dosed

v past p

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

dose /doʊs/   n., v., dosed, dos•ing. 
n. [countable]

1. Drugs an amount of medicine to be taken at one time:
   an hourly dose of medicine.
2. an intense and often disagreeable experience:
   a dose of bad luck.
3. Physics the amount of radiation to which something has been exposed:
   The doses of radioactivity were already well past the lethal level.

v. [~ + object]

4. Drugs to give a dose of medicine to:
   We dosed her with non-aspirin tablets to reduce the fever.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

dose  (dōs), n., v., dosed, dos•ing. 
n. 

1. Drugs a quantity of medicine prescribed to be taken at one time.
2. a substance, situation, or quantity of anything analogous to medicine, esp. of something disagreeable:
   Failing the exam was a hard dose to swallow.
3. Wine an amount of sugar added in the production of champagne.
4. Physics
   • Also called absorbed dose. the quantity of ionizing radiation absorbed by a unit mass of matter, esp. living tissue: measured in gray or rad.
   • See exposure dose. 
5. Slang Terms a case of gonorrhea or syphilis.

v.t. 

6. to administer in or apportion for doses.
7. Drugs to give a dose of medicine to.
8. Wine to add sugar to (champagne) during production.

v.i. 

9. Drugs to take a dose of medicine.

• Greek dósis a giving
• Late Latin dosis
• earlier dos 1590–1600

dos′er, n. 

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

dose / dəʊs/ noun

1. a specific quantity of a therapeutic drug or agent taken at any one time or at specified intervals
2. something unpleasant to experience: a dose of influenza
3. 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
4. Also called: dosage a small amount of syrup added to wine, esp sparkling wine, when the sediment is removed and the bottle is corked
5. a sexually transmitted infection, esp gonorrhoea

verb (transitive)

1. to administer a dose or doses to (someone)
2. to give (a therapeutic drug or agent) in appropriate quantities
3. to add syrup to (wine) during bottling

Etymology: 15th Century: from French, from Late Latin dosis, from Greek: a giving, from didonai to give