A dose is a typically-measured amount of a possibly-controlled substance normally ingested or otherwise consumed by an organism. Examples include a dose of cold medicine or a dose of aspirin. Using dose with other nouns can be used to liken that object to an addictive or controlled substance, e.g. getting one's daily dose of Ultima Online.

Dose (?), n. [F. dose, Gr. a giving, a dose, fr. to give; akin to L. dare to give. See Date point of time.]

1.

The quantity of medicine given, or prescribed to be taken, at one time.

2.

A sufficient quantity; a portion; as much as one can take, or as falls to one to receive.

3.

Anything nauseous that one is obliged to take; a disagreeable portion thrust upon one.

I am for curing the world by gentle alteratives, not by violent doses. W. Irving.

I dare undertake that as fulsome a dose as you give him, he shall readily take it down. South.

 

© Webster 1913.


Dose, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dosed (?); p. pr. & vb. n. dosing.] [Cf. F. doser. See Dose, n.]

1.

To proportion properly (a medicine), with reference to the patient or the disease; to form into suitable doses.

2.

To give doses to; to medicine or physic to; to give potions to, constantly and without need.

A self-opinioned physician, worse than his distemper, who shall dose, and bleed, and kill him, "secundum artem." South

3.

To give anything nauseous to.

 

© Webster 1913.

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