dole
/doʊl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.33 in modern English
5
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "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, [...]"
- "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."
- "I get my dole paid twice a week."
- "I've been on the dole for two years now."
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 Polish dola (“fate, cut”), Old Church Slavonic дѣлити (děliti, “divide”). More at deal. First attested in the late 12th c. The verb is first attested in the mid-15th c.
Origin
- Source language: Middle English
- First known use: First attested in the late 12th c.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /doʊl/
- British English: /dəʊl/