From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdoledole1 /dəʊl $ doʊl/ noun [uncountable] informal 1 PEW British English money given by the government in Britain to people who are unemployedbe/go on the dole (=be unemployed and receiving money from the government) Too many young people are still on the dole. The number claiming dole went up by 3,500.2 → the dole queue/dole queues3 → the dole
Examples from the Corpus
dole• Surely they didn't collect dole cheques from the society they so obviously rejected?• She was an alien in the country with no dole to fall back on, didn't have much money.• I want to be on the public dole.• I brace myself for the sight of the posters, unrolled and exposed, and the dole cards.• If the unemployed learned to be better managers ... I fancy it would not be long before the dole was docked correspondingly.• Surely this term should be used to describe some one who lives and works - or draws the dole - in Scouserpool?• I said the bankers were the first to go on the dole.• I was on the dole then, getting £5.50 a week and the rent was £2.50.claiming dole• In Northern Ireland, last year saw some 5,000 redundancies, while the number claiming dole went up by 3,500.doledole2 verb → dole something ↔ out→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
dole• It must also dole out a level of punishment so severe that it precludes any further response.• So to save costs -- many millions a year, experts say -- the company stopped doling out awards.• They've been doling out compassion long before the late Princess Diana invented it.• Its board has adopted a streamlined procedure for doling out emergency loans.• Local officials traditionally lavish entertainment on national officials who dole out money for public works and other local projects.From Longman Business Dictionarydoledole /dəʊldoʊl/ noun [uncountable] British English informal old-fashioned in Britain, money that the government gives to people who are looking for workSYNwelfare AmEA whole generation of miners ended up on the dole.unemployed demonstrators protesting at dole cutsOrigin dole2 Old English dal “part, share” 