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• dole
  dole

  noun

  a portion or allotment of money, food, etc., especially as given at regular intervals by a charity or for maintenance.
• Dole
  Dole

  noun

  Robert J(oseph), 1923–2021, U.S. politician: senator 1969–96.

dole

¹ American  

[dohl] / doʊl /

noun

1. a portion or allotment of money, food, etc., especially as given at regular intervals by a charity or for maintenance.

   Synonyms:

   pittance, share, alms

2. a dealing out or distributing, especially in charity.

3. a form of payment to the unemployed instituted by the British government in 1918.

4. any similar payment by a government to an unemployed person.

5. Archaic. one's fate or destiny.

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verb (used with object)

• doles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• doled,
  past participle,  past
• doling
  present participle

1. to distribute in charity.

2. to give out sparingly or in small quantities (usually followed byout ).

   The last of the water was doled out to the thirsty crew.

   Synonyms:

   ration, mete

idioms

1. on the dole, receiving payment from the government, as relief.

   They couldn't afford any luxuries while living on the dole.

dole ² American  

[dohl] / doʊl /

noun

Archaic.

1. grief or sorrow; lamentation.

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Dole ³ American  

[dohl] / doʊl /

noun

1. Robert J(oseph), 1923–2021, U.S. politician: senator 1969–96.

2. Sanford Ballard, 1844–1926, U.S. politician and jurist in Hawaii: president of Republic of Hawaii 1894–98; first territorial governor 1900–03.

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dole ¹ British  

/ dəʊl /

noun

1. a small portion or share, as of money or food, given to a poor person

2. the act of giving or distributing such portions

3. informal money received from the state while out of work

4. informal receiving such money

5. archaic fate

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verb

1. to distribute, esp in small portions

dole ² British  

/ dəʊl /

noun

1. archaic grief or mourning

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Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• doling
  present
• doled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• dole
  simple
• doles
  simple
• have doled
  perfect
• has doled
  perfect
• am doling
  progressive
• are doling
  progressive
• is doling
  progressive
• have been doling
  perfect progressive
• has been doling
  perfect progressive

Past

• doled
  simple
• had doled
  perfect
• was doling
  progressive
• were doling
  progressive
• had been doling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will dole
  simple
• will have doled
  perfect
• will be doling
  progressive
• will have been doling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of dole¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English dol, dal “part, subdivision,” Old English dāl, gedāl “sharing”; see origin at deal ¹

Origin of dole²

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English dol, dol(e), doll from Old French duel, doel, from Late Latin dolus, for Latin dolor dolor

Explanation

Dole is a charitable donation or support, like the dole governments provide to victims of natural disasters. Dole is also a verb meaning "distribute," so you might dole out your leftover Halloween candy to your little sisters. In Britain, unemployment benefits and other government aid is commonly known as "the dole." In the U.S., the noun dole is rare, but when it's used it means "any charitable gift." When local businesses hold a toy drive during the winter holidays, those donations are dole given to needy families. As a verb, dole is most commonly used in the phrasal verb "dole out," although you'll sometimes see it used on its own.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dole Dole doles doled doling

Billed as "a podcast for people who don't get out much and can't handle it when they do", the show sees Nighy dole out wry advice to listeners, and muse about life, music and books.

From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026

His support didn’t stop once he was in the chamber, as he continued to dole out major donations to a wide range of conservative lawmakers.

From Salon ● May 23, 2026

He loved archery, considering it a lost art, and would make his own bows that he would dole out as gifts.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 22, 2026

Companies with excess cash can do things like hoard it, dole much of it out through shareholder returns, make acquisitions or invest in the business through areas like research and development.

From MarketWatch ● May 19, 2026

Half his dole check would have gone into the contents of that cooler.

From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak

During his remarks, Sen. Dole locked eyes with me.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 4, 2026

Northern Territory Police Force Commissioner Martin Dole said that 25 years was a "significant milestone" and that he hoped the release of new images could jog memories or lead to a tip-off.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

Dole, which asked whether Congress could condition federal funding of highways on states raising their drinking age to 21.

From Slate ● Jun. 23, 2026

Credit, too, Republican Senate Majority leader Bob Dole, who served on the commission, along with the late, great Senate Democrat Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026

Gerber’s, Heinz, Dole, ConAgra, and ADM all bought organic brands or started their own.

From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan

He asserted that the government doles out “hundreds of billions of dollars, under the act. ... They take our money, and they don’t spend it.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

The Knicks postponed a planned presale on Ticketmaster, while the NBA doles out tickets to its own partners.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 5, 2026

Audience members are naturally Bacharach fans, and the show, which runs about two hours with an intermission, doles out the great hits lavishly, beginning with all three singers performing “Always Something There to Remind Me.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026

Really, the only questions surrounding the group will be how Servais doles out the playing time to take advantage of the power potential that Canzone has shown and also trying to keep Haniger healthy.

From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2024

Her slender brown arms wave about like wings as she doles out every command.

From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton

Meta previously doled out roughly $94 million through a prior community grant program.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

Colorado doled out $4.7 million in taxpayer funding to a marketing firm, Amélie Co., to tell teenagers about the program.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026

For SpaceX, the fee was 0.7%; that number is small but it still came to about $500 million, to be doled out by Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, the lead banks.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 16, 2026

What’s left over will be doled out to individual investors.

From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026

After two songs, the fiddle and horn carried on alone while the drummer went around hat in hand ungraciously accepting the pennies doled out to him.

From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith

There are about 276.8 million adults aged 18 and over in the United States, according to Congressional Budget Office data, and doling out $5,000 to each would come to $1.384 trillion.

From Barron's ● Sep. 10, 2026

U.S. startups have drawn the most private capital; China is doling out government funds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 2026

Arcuri expects that spending to grow to $10 billion in 2028, which could put the Terafab on the path to doling out more than $50 billion a year for wafer-fab equipment by 2030 or 2031.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 7, 2026

OpenAI offers yearly salaries that top $500,000 for some technical roles, according to its website, and is doling out far more stock-based compensation than other tech companies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 11, 2026

And there were plenty of private videos uploaded to the Thunderhead, showing Goddard and his disciples doling out immunity like bread to the poor.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman