dole

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dəʊl/, /dɔʊl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /dol/
• Rhymes: -əʊl
• Homophone: dhole

From Middle English dol, from Old English dāl (“portion, share, division, allotment”), from Proto-Germanic *dailą (“part, deal”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰayl- (“part, watershed”). Cognate with Old Church Slavonic дѣлити (děliti, “divide”). More at deal.

dole (third-person singular simple present doles, present participle doling, simple past and past participle doled)

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

• dole out

dole

1. Money or other goods given as charity.
   • c. 1690, John Dryden, Eleonora:

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

   • 1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “In Which Captain Devereux’s Fiddle Plays a Prelude to ‘Over the Hills and Far Away’”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume I, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 307–308:

     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.

   • 1827, [John Keble], “Seventh Sunday after Trinity”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume II, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, page 26:

     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.

   Synonyms: (UK) pancrack, (Canada) pogey

   I get my dole paid twice a week.

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

   • 1980 February 25, Antony Jay, Jonathan Lynn, “Open Government”, in Yes Minister, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington):

     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.

   • 1986, Morrissey, Johnny Marr (lyrics and music), “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”, in The Queen is Dead, performed by The Smiths:

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

   • 1996, Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes, page 107:

     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.

   • 1997, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD Economic Surveys: Australia, page 67:

     The FY 1997/98 Commonwealth budget allocated funding of A$ 21.6 million to the Work for the Dole initiative for unemployed young people.

   • 2002, “Has It Come to This?”, in Mike Skinner (lyrics), Original Pirate Material, performed by The Streets:

     Sort your shit out, then roll / Sex, drugs, and on the dole / Some men rise, some men fall

4. A boundary; a landmark.
   • 1559, “Injunctions Given by the Queens Majesty, Concerning both the Clergy and Laity, of This Realm, Published Anno Domini Mdlix. being the First Year of the Raign of Our Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth”, in Anth[ony] Sparrow, compiler, A Collection of Articles, Injunctions, Canons, Orders, Ordinances, & Constitutions Ecclesiastical, with Other Publick Records of the Church of England, […], 4th edition, London: […] Blanch Rawlet […], published 1684, →OCLC, paragraph 19, page 73:

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

5. (British, dialectal) A void space left in tillage.

(payment to support the unemployed):

From Middle English doell (“grief”), from Old French doel (compare French deuil), from Late Latin dolus, from Latin doleo.

dole (uncountable)

1. (archaic) A sorrow or grief; dolour.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, William Caxton, Le Morte Darthur, Book IX, Chapter xvii, leaf 183r:

     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."

   • a. 1885, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Lancelot and Elaine”, in Idylls of the King:

     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.

   • 1905, Howard Pyle, “The Story of Launcelot”, in The Story of the Champions of the Round Table‎^[1], New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, page 46:

     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.

2. (law, Scotland) Dolus.

• Delo, Deol, Doel, Ledo, OLED, leod, lode, olde

• IPA^(key): [ˈdolɛ]

• Audio:

  (file)

dole

1. down (at a lower place or position)

   Antonym: nahoře

• vlevo
• vpravo

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

dole m

1. vocative/locative singular of důl

• “dole”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “dole”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989
• “dole”, in Internetová jazyková příručka (in Czech)

dole

1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of dolen

• doel

• Homophones: dolent, doles

dole

1. inflection of doler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

dolē

1. second-person singular present active imperative of doleō

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔlɛ/, [ˈdɔlə]

dole

1. locative singular of doł

• IPA^(key): /ˈdɔ.lɛ/
• Rhymes: -ɔlɛ
• Syllabification: do‧le

dole f

1. nominative/accusative/vocative plural of dola

dole m inan

1. locative/vocative singular of dół

• dȍlje (Ijekavian)

• IPA^(key): /dôle/
• Hyphenation: do‧le

dȍle (Cyrillic spelling до̏ле)

1. down
2. below

dȍle (Cyrillic spelling до̏ле)

1. down

   Dol(j)e s vladom!

   Down with the government!

From Middle English dol, from Old English dāl, from Proto-Germanic *dailą.

• IPA^(key): /dɔːɫ/

dole

1. deal

   Synonym: daal

   • 1867, GLOSSARY OF THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 36:

     A big dole.

     A great deal.

   • 1867, “BIT OF DIALOGUE”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, page 111:

     Aar's a dole o' sneow apa greound to-die.

     There is a deal of snow upon the ground to-day.

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 36

• dol

• IPA^(key): [doˈlə]
• Hyphenation: do‧le

dole f

1. A lake.

• gol