Definition of "dose"

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 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884

“I had then, as you remember, just returned to London after a lot of Indian Ocean, Pacific, China Seas - a regular dose of the East - six years or so, and I was loafing about, hindering you fellows in your work and invading your homes, just as though I had got a heavenly mission to civilise you.”

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], part I, page 197

The prospect of becoming a father is a dose of reality that threatens to bring his dream world crashing down.

2001, Susan Stryker, Queer Pulp, page 78

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

Sometime back, one of your scarlet sisters dosed me proper.

1977, The White Buffalo, Wild Bill Hickok

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

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