dose

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French dose, from Late Latin dosis, from Ancient Greek δόσις (dósis, “a portion prescribed”, literally “a giving”), used by Galen and other Greek physicians to mean an amount of medicine, from δίδωμι (dídōmi, “to give”). Doublet of doos.

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 or experienced at any one time.
   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. 2014-04-21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884
3. (figurative, dated) Anything disagreeable that must be taken.
   as in have one's fill.
4. (figurative, dated) A good measure or lengthy experience of something.
5. A venereal infection.
   Don't give a dose to the one you love most. / Give her some marmalade... give her some toast. 1972, Shel Silverstein (lyrics and music), “Don't Give A Dose to the One You Love Most”
   It would be very expensive to cure a dose here, as well as unbelievably painful. 1978, Lawrence Durrell, Livia (Avignon Quintet), Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 382

verb

1. (transitive) To administer a dose to.
2. To prescribe a dose.
3. To transmit a venereal disease.
   Sometime back, one of your scarlet sisters dosed me proper. 1977, The White Buffalo, Wild Bill Hickok

Etymology 2

noun

1. Archaic form of doze.
   Just at the dawning of the day, I fell into a dose more like sleep than any I had during the whole night, in which I dreamed that I saw a river as clear as crystal […] 1839, Benjamin Abbott, Experience and Gospel Labors of the Rev. Benjamin Abbott

verb

1. Archaic form of doze.
   It was to me a marvellous experience; to be here, propped up with pillows in a dimly-lighted room, the night-nurse idly dosing by the fire; the sound of the everlasting wind in my ears, howling outside […] 1918, William Henry Hudson, Far Away And Long Ago