dole

¹

[dohl]

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.

verb (used with object)

doled, doling 

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

dole

²

[dohl]

noun

Archaic.

1. grief or sorrow; lamentation.

Dole

³

[dohl]

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.

dole

¹

/ 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

verb

1. to distribute, esp in small portions

dole

²

/ dəʊl /

noun

1. archaic,  grief or mourning

Word History and Origins

Origin of dole¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English dol, dal “part, subdivision,” Old English dāl, gedāl “sharing”; 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

Word History and Origins

Origin of dole¹

Old English dāl share; related to Old Saxon dēl, Old Norse deild, Gothic dails, Old High German teil; see _deal ¹

Origin of dole²

C13: from Old French, from Late Latin dolus, from Latin dolēre to lament

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

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

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

Example Sentences

Chatbots won’t only know what you stream and shop for, they’ll figure out if you are liberal or conservative, progressive or hard right, moderate or apathetic—valuable for campaigns doling out advertising dollars.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

How, where and to whom Safe America Media doled out the $143 million is unknown.

Read more on Salon

In one such talk earlier this year, he doled out advice to aspiring researchers: “If you are a Ph.D. student in AI, you should absolutely not work on LLMs.”

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

One is that government authorities may dole out favors, choosing winners and losers.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Yet the big Wall Street banks at the center of it just kept on growing, along with the sums of money that they doled out to twenty-six-year-olds to perform tasks of no obvious social utility.

Read more on Literature