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on relief



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Idioms and Phrases

Also, on welfare ; on the dole . Receiving public financial assistance, as in Half the people in this town are on relief , or Don hated the idea of going on welfare . The first two terms originated in the United States in the 1930s, when government assistance of this kind was first instituted. On the dole , used mainly in Britain but occasionally in America, dates from the 1920s, although the use of dole for a charitable gift dates from about 1200.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

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