Dose

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /dəʊs/
• US IPA: /doÊŠs/
• Rhymes: -əʊs

Origin

Borrowing from frm dose, from Late Latin dosis, from Ancient Greek δόσις ("a portion prescribed", literally a giving), used by Galen and other Greek physicians to mean an amount of medicine, from δίδωμι ("to give").

Full definition of dose

Noun

1. A measured portion of medicine taken at any one time.
2. The quantity of an agent (not always active) substance or radiation administered at any one time.
• 2014-04-21, Subtle effects, Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese...began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated. The poisoning was irreversible, and soon ended in psychosis and death. Nowadays workers are exposed to far lower doses and manganism is rare.
3. A venereal infection.
• 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia, Faber & Faber 1992 (Avignon Quintet), p. 382:It would be very expensive to cure a dose here, as well as unbelievably painful.

Verb

1. to administer a dose
2. to prescribe a dose

Anagrams

• does, odes, SOED