Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
underdosing

underdosing

7.3
Giving or taking less medicine than the doctor says
  • noun
  • /ˌʌndərˈdoʊsɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : subdosificación
  • She was worried that underdosing her allergy medicine would not relieve her symptoms.

Examples

  • The underdosing is the major cause of anthelmintic resistance (Toscan et al., 2012).

    Academic text (2015)

  • Underdosing can lead to treatment failure when patients do not receive enough of their underdosing medication.

  • The doctor warned that underdosing antibiotics could allow the infection to persist.

Antonyms

overdosage
  • NSFW
1 5.8

Taking too much of a drug or medicine that can harm the body

How Much

overdosage
  • NSFW
1 5.8
correct dose
  • Specialized
1 3.4
underdosing
  • Specialized
7.3

Surface Forms

underdosing singular
underdosings plural

Morphology

underdosing = underdose (transparent) = under + dose + ing

Formation is a regular gerund/participle from the verb 'underdose' (under + dose), with an obvious meaning of giving or taking too small a dose.

Etymology

Underdosing is simply under- + dose: under- means 'not enough' or 'below', and dose is the amount of medicine you take. So underdosing means giving or taking less medicine than recommended, which makes the treatment less effective.