dope out
Britishverb
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Work or figure out, as in I've been trying to dope out this new computer program . [ Slang ; c. 1900]
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Also, dope up . Use narcotics or psychotropic drugs, as in They said the fraternity initiation may involve doping up . The first term dates from the early 1900s, the variant from about 1970.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On the other hand, Ben Franklin was, which can make his fake quotations particularly difficult to dope out.
From Time • Sep. 22, 2017
It seems like a jivey do-gooder’s praise-rap for womankind, but I couldn’t dope out the intent.
From New York Times • Aug. 25, 2016
Maybe Eli Lily was too tough to dope out but not Hewlett-Packard, up 26% and Halliburton up 37%.
From Forbes • Aug. 19, 2014
Cheong just returned from a two-week trip to China during which he tried to dope out the current state of Pyongyang's relationship with Beijing.
From Time • Aug. 27, 2010
They never did catch me using my spy-ray—it's on an awfully narrow beam, you know, and uses almost no power at all—so I've been able to dope out quite a lot of stuff.
From Triplanetary by Smith, E. E. (Edward Elmer)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
