dole

verb

1. To distribute in small amounts; to share out small portions of a meager resource.

noun

1. Money or other goods given as charity.

   “So sure the dole, so ready at their call, / They stood prepar'd to see the manna fall.”

   “Devereux […] was beholden, not only for his fun, but occasionally for his daily bread and even his liberty, to those benovolent^([sic]) doles.”

2. Distribution; dealing; apportionment.

   “c. 1650s, John Cleveland, Upon Phillis Walking in a Morning before Sun-rising At her general dole, / Each receives his ancient soul.”

   “Go not away, thou weary soul: / Heaven has in store a precious dole / Even on Bethsaida's cold and darksome height, [...]”

3. (informal)Payment by the state to the unemployed; unemployment benefits.

   “I get my dole paid twice a week.”

   “I've been on the dole for two years now.”

   “So, we are being fobbed off by second-rate American junk by smart aleck salesman from Pittsburgh while British factories stand empty and British workmen queue up for the dole.”

   “From the ice age to the dole age / There is but one concern / I have just discovered”

   “The men sit because they′re worn out from walking to the Labour Exchange every morning to sign for the dole, discussing the world’s problems and wondering what to do with the rest of the day.”

4. A boundary; a landmark.

   “Curſed be he which tranſlateth the bounds and dolles of his Neighbor.”

5. (British, dialectal)A void space left in tillage.
6. (archaic, uncountable)A sorrow or grief; dolour.

   “Syr said sir gyngalyn I wote not what knyȝt he was / but wel I wote that he sygheth and maketh grete dole. "Sir, said Sir Gingalin, I wot not what knight he was, but well I wot that he sigheth, and maketh great dole."”

   “But ten slow mornings past, and on the eleventh / Her father laid the letter in her hand, / And closed the hand upon it, and she died. / So that day there was dole in Astolat.”

   “These knights he keepeth there in great dole and misery, for it is said that their groans may be heard by the passers along the high-road below the castle.”

7. (Scotland, uncountable)Dolus.
8. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative form of dhole (“Asian wild dog”).

name

1. (countable, uncountable)A surname.
2. (countable, uncountable)Dole Constituency, a parliamentary constituency in Zanzibar.
3. (countable, uncountable)A commune in Jura department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France.
4. (countable, uncountable)A hamlet in Tirymynach community, Ceredigion, Wales (OS grid ref SN6386).
5. (Philippines, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of Department of Labor and Employment.