dope

Meanings

Noun

• Any viscous liquid or paste, such as a lubricant, used in preparing a surface.
• An absorbent material used to hold a liquid.
• Any varnish used to coat a part, such as an airplane wing or a hot-air balloon in order to waterproof, strengthen, etc.
• Any illicit or narcotic drug that produces euphoria or satisfies an addiction; particularly heroin.
• Information, usually from an inside source, originally in horse racing and other sports.
• Ballistic data on previously fired rounds, used to calculate the required hold over a target.
• A stupid person.
• Dessert topping.

Verb

• To affect with drugs.
• To treat with dope (lubricant, etc.).
• To add a dopant such as arsenic to (a pure semiconductor such as silicon).
• To use drugs; especially, to use prohibited performance-enhancing drugs in sporting competitions.
• To judge or guess; to predict the result of.

Adjective

• Amazing; cool.

Origin

• From Dutch doop, from Dutch dopen, from Middle Dutch dopen, from Old Dutch *dōpen, from Frankish *daupijan, from Proto-Germanic *daupijaną.
• Sense “narcotic drug” originally from viscous opium pastes, “insider information” perhaps from knowing which horse had been doped in a race. Related to English dip and German taufen.