dole

Noun (1)

dole (countable and uncountable, plural doles)

1. (uncountable) Distribution; dealing; apportionment.
   • At her general dole, / Each receives his ancient soul.c. 1650s, John Cleveland, Upon Phillis Walking in a Morning before Sun-rising
   1. Distribution of alms or gifts.
      • Go not away, thou weary soul: / Heaven has in store a precious dole / Even on Bethsaida's cold and darksome height, [...]1827, [John Keble], “Seventh Sunday after Trinity”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume II, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for...
2. (broadly, uncountable) 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.c. 1690, John Dryden, Eleonora
   • Devereux […] was beholden, not only for his fun, but occasionally for his daily bread and even his liberty, to those benovolent^([sic]) doles.1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “In Which Captain Devereux’s Fiddle Plays a Prelude to ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […]...
3. (informal, often, uncountable) 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.

   Synonyms:

   pancrack, pogey

4. (countable) A boundary; a landmark.
   • Curſed be he which tranſlateth the bounds and dolles of his Neighbor.1559, “Injunctions Given by the Queens Majesty, Concerning both the Clergy and Laity, of This Realm, Published Anno Domini Mdlix. being the First Year of the Raign of Our Soveraign Lady Queen...
5. (UK, countable, dialectal) A void space left in tillage.

Verb

dole (third-person singular simple present doles, present participle doling, simple past and past participle doled)

1. (intransitive) To distribute alms, etc., in small amounts; to share out small portions of a meager resource.
2. (transitive) To distribute (as, alms) in small amounts; to share out (small portions of a meager resource).

Noun (2)

dole (uncountable)

1. (archaic) 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."1485, Thomas Malory, William Caxton, Le Morte Darthur, Book IX, Chapter xvii, leaf 183r
2. (Scotland) Dolus.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Dole

US[doʊ̯ɫ]

Dole (countable and uncountable, plural Doles)

1. A surname.
2. Dole Constituency, a parliamentary constituency in Zanzibar.
3. A commune in Jura department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.
4. A hamlet in Tirymynach community, Ceredigion, Wales (OS grid ref SN6386).

Proper noun (2) capitalized: DOLE

IPA/ˈdole/

DOLE

1. (Philippines, abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of Department of Labor and Employment.