“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.[1] Sense of "stupid person" perhaps following from the drug sense (i.e. relating to those intoxicated on opium), comparedope up. Related toEnglishdip andGermantaufen.
1977, Robert O. Parmley,Standard Handbook of Fastening and Joining, New York: McGraw-Hill,→ISBN,page247:
Use a good pipedope on the NPT threads. When applying pipedope do not put any on the first two threads from the end. Always putdope on the male thread—never on the female thread.
Do you remember me? / How we used to be / Helpless and happy and blind? / Sunk without hope / In a haze of gooddope / And cheap wine?
Anopiate, now particularlyheroin.[from late 19th c.]
1900, “Gifford Arthur Nelson”, inThe Naughty-Naughtian,page118:
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 smokedope or swallow laudanum. They all did it.
But she went her way. Not until she accompanied a girl to an opium joint to discover whetherdope had the merits claimed for it as a deadener of pain and a producer of happiness—not until then did Freddie come in person.
1953,Tom Lehrer, “The Old Dope Peddler”, inSongs by Tom Lehrer, Pantheon, published1981, page18:
Here's a cure for all your troubles / Here's an end to all distress / It's the olddope peddler / With his powdered happiness
We watched as he got his works and squirted water out first, then stuck the tip of the needle into thedope and sucked it up before finding a vein and sticking it into his arm.
1981 September 26, Berkeley Breathed,Bloom County (comic):
(Senator): Well good! Good! Thisis afine batch of corn you have! (Farmer): 'Taint corn. It'sdope.
1983 March 28, “Smokin'”, inThe Breeze[2], James Madison University, Readers' Forum, page19:
Some people say thatdope 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 throughdope.
1996, Stephen King,Desperation:
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 muchdope floating around and she just couldn’t say no to it.
2024 May 29, Christian Wolmar, “The good and bad sides of the Parisian Metro”, inRAIL, number1010, page44:
At a suburban station, there were kids hanging around smokingdope, as ticketless entry through the exit doors is easy for them.
1917 October 25,Ernest Hemingway, “To Clarence Hemingway”, in Sandra Spanier, Robert W. Trogdon, editors,The letters of Ernest Hemingway, volume 1, Cambridge University Press, published2011,→ISBN,page55:
I got thru the lines and talked with the Captain and got all theDope.[sic]
2000 August 7, Robert Newman, “Performers of the world unite”, inThe Guardian[3]:
Same with Michael Moore. When the people's champ gives us thedope on corporate bosses and sweatshop kings, he never presents their greed as some kind of deplorable personal trait.
2013, Deborah Solomon,American Mirror: The Life and Art of Norman Rockwell, Farrar, Straus and Giroux,→ISBN,page198:
“Everyone seems less excited about the war here than out there. When I do get thedope on the poster situation, I will let you know.” He and Forsythe were itching to contribute to the war effort by designing recruitment posters.
(uncountable,firearms) Ballistic data on previously fired rounds, used to calculate the required hold over a target.
1902, “The Barrister's Shakespeare”, inThe Green Bag, volume XIV,page525:
The reasons why this verification is made by her and not by the defendant is because he is adope and a fat-head and hasn't sense enough to do it himself.
1990 February 11, Bill Watterson,Calvin & Hobbes (comic):
You call thatsteering? We almost got killed!My fault? Yeah, step overhere and say that, you stripeydope! That's right, I'm talking toyou!
1972 [1955, 1938],Lazar Lagin, “Беспокойный вечер”, inСтарик Хоттабыч [Starik Xottabyč], page46; English translation from “A Troubled Evening”, in Faina Solasko, transl.,The Old Genie Hottabych, translation of original in Russian,1960, page54:
“I’ll turn all the goods, all the tables and all the equipment of this despicable shop into dust!” “You’re mad!” Volka said, really angry by now. “Don’t you know that’s government property, youdope!”
[original:— Я превращу в пыль все товары, и все столы, и всё оборудование этой презренной лавки! — Ты с ума сошёл! — вконец возмутился Волька.— Ведь это государственное добро, старая тыбалда!]
— Ja prevrašču v pylʹ vse tovary, i vse stoly, i vsjo oborudovanije etoj prezrennoj lavki! — Ty s uma sošól! — vkonec vozmutilsja Volʹka.— Vedʹ eto gosudarstvennoje dobro, staraja tybalda!
Cecil Winwood accepted the test. He claimed that he coulddope the guards the night of the break. "Talk is cheap," said Long Bill Hodge. "What we want is the goods.Dope one of the guards to-night."
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 shoulddope the horse with both medicines[…]
(transitive) To treat with dope (lubricant, etc.).
2011, Cathleen Shamieh, Gordon McComb,Electronics For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons,→ISBN,page113:
Another way todope semiconductors is to use materials like boron, in which each atom has onefewer valence electron than does a sillicon atom.
(intransitive, now chiefly sports) To usedrugs; especially, to use prohibited performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) in sporting competitions.
2015, Vassilis Barkoukis, Lambros Lazuras, Haralambos Tsorbatzoudis,The Psychology of Doping in Sport[5], Routledge,→ISBN:
The more experienced cyclists, whodoped or used todope, transmitted the culture ofdoping to the younger cyclists, teaching themdoping methods and suggesting which substances to use.
Thedope 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.
