dole out

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Verb

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

1. (idiomatic, transitive) To distribute in apportioned amounts.
   • 2008 July 15, w:Matthew Yglesias, “Obama's Elitism Problem, Continued”, in The Atlantic‎^[1]:

     The McCains, by contrast, dole out such homespun wisdom as "in Arizona, the only way to get around the state is by small private plane" and understand that in this crazy modern world where the typical family owns eleven homes and spends hundreds of thousands of dollars per year on household staff, you can't possibly expect transportation alternatives to gain popularity.

   • 2009 January 25, Frank Rich, “No Time for Poetry”, in New York Times‎^[2]:

     Only then did we learn that he doled out billions in secret, last-minute bonuses to his staff last month, just before Bank of America took over and just before the government ponied up a second bailout to cover Merrill’s unexpected $15 billion fourth-quarter loss.

   • 2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “New Kid On The Block” (season 4, episode 8; originally aired 11/12/1992)”, in The Onion AV Club‎^[3]:

     The animators, writers and Gilbert do a fantastic job of making Laura an eminently crush-worthy figure of adolescent yearning but the episode doles out scenes of her and Bart together sparingly.

Synonyms

• (distribute in small portions): dish out, mete out

Translations

to distribute in small quantities

• Dutch: verdelen (nl), uitdelen (nl)
• French: distribuer (fr)
• German: (gleichmäßig) austeilen
• Italian: distribuire (it)
• Japanese: 分け与える (wake ataeru)
• Maori: tōronga
• Occitan: distribuir (oc)
• Serbo-Croatian: porcionirati
• Spanish: erogar (es), repartir (es), distribuir (es)