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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

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

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

Those groups then dole out the money to families to cover school costs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 4, 2026

Rea said he was on the dole at the time, his manager had just left him and he had been banned from driving.

From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2025

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

From "I Am the Messenger" by Markus Zusak

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

"This remains a deeply distressing matter," police commissioner Martin Dole told reporters.

From Barron's ● May 3, 2026

Northern Territory Police Commissioner Martin Dole told the ABC Lewis was unconscious when officers found him.

From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026

The family sat through a long-winded commencement address delivered by Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole, and then Billie snapped pictures of a grinning Chris traversing the stage to receive his diploma.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer

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

Business leaders are nervous about the vacancy, as the EDC historically doles out land, tax breaks, and financing for developments.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

The agent in turn safeguards the funds and doles it out to pay expenses and compensation as they come up.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 22, 2025

Injuries are often taken into consideration when the NHL’s Department of Player Safety doles out punishments.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 5, 2024

Her duties, as far as I can see, consist of keeping track of orders, handing out assignments to Fanny, who then doles them out to us, and collecting the finished garments.

From "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline

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

Previously, the consequence was only doled out when people with such debt sought to renew their passports.

From BBC ● May 7, 2026

Verizon doled out credits to customers affected by an hourslong, widespread outage on Jan. 14, which dragged on net income and revenue.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 27, 2026

Every mouthful of food was an acute positive pleasure, now that it was truly their own food, produced by themselves and for themselves, not doled out to them by a grudging master.

From "Animal Farm: A Fairy Story" by George Orwell

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

It urged Congress to block the fund from doling out any payments.

From Barron's ● May 18, 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

Govan basked in the limelight nearby, shaking hands and doling out hugs and back pats.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2026

No more doling out eggs as if they were pearls!

From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson