Word.ws English Dictionary

dole queue

dole queue noun: historically a queue to receive the dole (unemployment benefit), now used in reference to the number of people who are unemployed and claiming state benefit.

Noun

dole queue (plural dole queues)

  1. (UK) Historically a queue to receive the dole (unemployment benefit), now used in reference to the number of people who are unemployed and claiming state benefit.
    • It has taken people off the dole queue, and its online jobseekers board is updated daily.2021 September 8, “Network News: HS2 jobs boost - but skills shortage a concern”, in RAIL, number 939, page 16
    • Wadebridge area railwaymen were reported in the local press as "worried", while National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) Wadebridge branch secretary W J Hambly believed "the rail closures will mean dole queues at the Labour Exchange for many".2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 38

Forms of dole queue

pluraldole queues

Questions about dole queue

What does dole queue mean?
Dole queue means historically a queue to receive the dole (unemployment benefit), now used in reference to the number of people who are unemployed and claiming state benefit.
What part of speech is dole queue?
Dole queue is a noun.
What is the plural of dole queue?
The plural of dole queue is dole queues.

Words near dole queue in the dictionary

  1. dole meadow
  2. dole meadows
  3. dole merchant
  4. dole merchants
  5. dole out
  6. dole queue
  7. dole queues
  8. dolebludger
  9. dolebludgers
  10. doled
  11. doled out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dole queue (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “dole queue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dole_queue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.