Dole
name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 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."
- 2 A sorrow or grief; dolour. archaic, uncountable
"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.""
- 3 Alternative form of dhole (“Asian wild dog”). alt-of, alternative
- 4 money received from the state wordnet
- 5 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."
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 Dolus. Scotland, uncountable
- 7 a share of money or food or clothing that has been charitably given wordnet
- 8 Payment by the state to the unemployed; unemployment benefits. informal
"I get my dole paid twice a week."
- 9 A boundary; a landmark.
"Curſed be he which tranſlateth the bounds and dolles of his Neighbor."
- 10 A void space left in tillage. British, dialectal
- 1 To distribute in small amounts; to share out small portions of a meager resource.
- 1 A surname. countable, uncountable
- 2 Acronym of Department of Labor and Employment. Philippines, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
- 3 Dole Constituency, a parliamentary constituency in Zanzibar. countable, uncountable
- 4 A commune in Jura department, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, France. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"It should be noted that Dole did not intend to change the configuration of the communication protocol."
Etymology
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.
From Middle English dole (“grief”), from Old French doel (compare French deuil), from Late Latin dolus, from Latin doleo.
* As an English surname, from the archaic noun dole (“portion, share”). * As a French surname, from Old French dolé, past participle of doler (“to regret”), from Latin doleo (“to hurt”). * Also as a French surname, Americanized from Daul.
Related phrases
More for "dole"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.