dope

Etymology

From Dutch doop (“thick dipping sauce”), from Dutch dopen (“to dip”), from Middle Dutch dopen, from Old Dutch *dōpen, from Frankish *daupijan, from Proto-Germanic *daupijaną. “Doop” in the sense “narcotic drug” ultimately refers to viscous opium juice, the drug of choice of the ancient Greeks, “insider information” perhaps from knowing which horse had been doped in a race. Sense of "stupid person" perhaps following from the drug sense (i.e. relating to those intoxicated on opium), compare dope up. Related to English dip and German taufen.

noun

1. (uncountable) Any viscous liquid or paste, such as a lubricant, used in preparing a surface.
   Use a good pipe dope on the NPT threads. When applying pipe dope do not put any on the first two threads from the end. Always put dope on the male thread—never on the female thread. 1977, Robert O. Parmley, Standard Handbook of Fastening and Joining, New York: McGraw-Hill, page 247
2. (uncountable) An absorbent material used to hold a liquid.
3. (uncountable, aeronautics) Any varnish used to coat a part, such as an airplane wing or a hot-air balloon in order to waterproof, strengthen, etc.
4. (uncountable, slang) Any of various recreational substances:
   1. An opiate, now particularly heroin.
      If you are at all bright, don't be a grind. Grinding may make a second-hand genius of you (for all the real things are dead), and if you become a genius you will be sure to smoke dope or swallow laudanum. They all did it. 1900, “Gifford Arthur Nelson”, in The Naughty-Naughtian, page 118
      But she went her way. Not until she accompanied a girl to an opium joint to discover whether dope had the merits claimed for it as a deadener of pain and a producer of happiness—not until then did Freddie come in person. a. 1911, David Graham Phillips, Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise
      Here's a cure for all your troubles / Here's an end to all distress / It's the old dope peddler / With his powdered happiness 1953, Tom Lehrer, “The Old Dope Peddler”, in Songs by Tom Lehrer, Pantheon, published 1981, page 18
   2. Marijuana.
      (Senator): Well good! Good! This is a fine batch of corn you have! (Farmer): 'Taint corn. It's dope. Sep 26 1981, Berkeley Breathed, Bloom County (comic)
      Some people say that dope kills brain cells, but I can't figure out how they found that out. I mean, how do you tell if a brain cell is dead and how do you tell what killed it? I've probably wasted a lot more brain cells through booze than through dope. Mar 28 1983, “Smokin'”, in The Breeze, James Madison University, Readers' Forum, page 19
      She had gotten pregnant while stoned, had undoubtedly decided to marry Roger Finney while stoned, and Peter knew for a fact that she had left Reed (carrying a one-point-forget-it grade average) because there was too much dope floating around and she just couldn’t say no to it. 1996, Stephen King, Desperation
5. (uncountable, slang) Information, usually from an inside source, originally in horse racing and other sports.
   What's the latest dope on the stock market?
   I got thru the lines and talked with the Captain and got all the Dope. 1917-10-25, Ernest Hemingway, “To Clarence Hemingway”, in Sandra Spanier, Robert W. Trogdon, editors, The letters of Ernest Hemingway, volume 1, Cambridge University Press, published 2011, page 55
   Same with Michael Moore. When the people's champ gives us the dope on corporate bosses and sweatshop kings, he never presents their greed as some kind of deplorable personal trait. 2000-08-07, Robert Newman, “Performers of the world unite”, in The Guardian
   “Everyone seems less excited about the war here than out there. When I do get the dope on the poster situation, I will let you know.” He and Forsythe were itching to contribute to the war effort by designing recruitment posters. 2013, Deborah Solomon, American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 198
6. (uncountable, fireams) Ballistic data on previously fired rounds, used to calculate the required hold over a target.
7. (countable, slang) A stupid person.
   The reasons why this verification is made by her and not by the defendant is because he is a dope and a fat-head and hasn't sense enough to do it himself. 1902, “The Barrister's Shakespeare”, in The Green Bag, volume XIV, page 525
   You call that steering? We almost got killed! My fault? Yeah, step over here and say that, you stripey dope! That's right, I'm talking to you! Feb 11 1990, Bill Watterson, Calvin & Hobbes (comic)
8. (US, Ohio) Dessert topping.

verb

1. (transitive, slang) To affect with drugs.
   Now, suppose another veterinarian should come along with another medicine, named “Goine;” and that a quart of it would make a horse go twice as fast, and you should dope the horse with both medicines […] 1929, Horatio Sawyer Earle, The Autobiography of “By Gum” Earle, page 105
2. (transitive) To treat with dope (lubricant, etc.).
3. (transitive, electronics) To add a dopant such as arsenic to (a pure semiconductor such as silicon).
   Another way to dope semiconductors is to use materials like boron, in which each atom has one fewer valence electron than does a sillicon atom. 2011, Cathleen Shamieh, Gordon McComb, Electronics For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, page 113
4. (intransitive, now chiefly sports) To use drugs; especially, to use prohibited performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sporting competitions.
   The more experienced cyclists, who doped or used to dope, transmitted the culture of doping to the younger cyclists, teaching them doping methods and suggesting which substances to use. 2015, Vassilis Barkoukis, Lambros Lazuras, Haralambos Tsorbatzoudis, The Psychology of Doping in Sport, Routledge
5. (slang, transitive, dated) To judge or guess; to predict the result of.

adj

1. (slang) Amazing; cool.
   That party was dope!
   The dope conceptual beauty of the Jungle Brothers is the upful spin they put on black consciousness music, showing that being pro-black can be as much about hot fun in the summertime as gearing up for the next time. 1990, SPIN, volume 5, number 10, page 74
   That was dope, E. That shit was dope, man! 2015, Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, Straight Outta Compton (motion picture), spoken by Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins)