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dole

verb
/dəʊl/UK/dɒl//dol/US/doʊ̯ɫ/US/ˈdole/

Etymology

From Middle English dol, from Old English dāl (“portion, share, division, allotment”), from Proto-Germanic *dailą (“part, deal”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰayl- (“part, watershed”). Cognate with Old Church Slavonic дѣлити (děliti, “divide”). More at deal.

  1. inherited from *dʰayl-✻
  2. inherited from *dailą✻
  3. inherited from dāl
  4. inherited from dol

Definitions

  1. To distribute in small amounts

    To distribute in small amounts; to share out small portions of a meager resource.

  2. Money or other goods given as charity.

    • So sure the dole, so ready at their call, / They stood prepar'd to see the manna fall.
    • Devereux […] was beholden, not only for his fun, but occasionally for his daily bread and even his liberty, to those benovolent^([sic]) doles.

  3. Distribution

    Distribution; dealing; apportionment.

    • c. 1650s, John Cleveland, Upon Phillis Walking in a Morning before Sun-rising At her general dole, / Each receives his ancient soul.
    • Go not away, thou weary soul: / Heaven has in store a precious dole / Even on Bethsaida's cold and darksome height, [...]
  4. ›+ 11 more definitions

    1. Payment by the state to the unemployed

      Payment by the state to the unemployed; unemployment benefits.

      • I get my dole paid twice a week.
      • I've been on the dole for two years now.
      • So, we are being fobbed off by second-rate American junk by smart aleck salesman from Pittsburgh while British factories stand empty and British workmen queue up for the dole.

    2. A boundary

      A boundary; a landmark.

      • Curſed be he which tranſlateth the bounds and dolles of his Neighbor.

    3. A void space left in tillage.

    4. A sorrow or grief

      A sorrow or grief; dolour.

      • Syr said sir gyngalyn I wote not what knyȝt he was / but wel I wote that he sygheth and maketh grete dole. "Sir, said Sir Gingalin, I wot not what knight he was, but well I wot that he sigheth, and maketh great dole."
      • But ten slow mornings past, and on the eleventh / Her father laid the letter in her hand, / And closed the hand upon it, and she died. / So that day there was dole in Astolat.
      • These knights he keepeth there in great dole and misery, for it is said that their groans may be heard by the passers along the high-road below the castle.

    5. Dolus.

    6. Alternative form of dhole (“Asian wild dog”).

    7. A surname.

    8. Dole Constituency, a parliamentary constituency in Zanzibar.

    9. A commune in Jura department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.

    10. A hamlet in Tirymynach community, Ceredigion, Wales (OS grid ref SN6386).

    11. Acronym of Department of Labor and Employment.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for dole. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA