Meanings
- slangOn the dole; receiving unemployment benefit.
"What do the Catholics do for work?" "Go on the brew. You know the stayet. The Relief. Then they hang around the bars and the bookie shops. There's nothin' else they can do."
1969, New York Magazine, volume 2, number 11, page 311 more example
Lost her job like so many others. It's hard to get jobs in retail these days, there's a lot of shops closing down. Senga's signed on the brew, but hopefully something will come up.
2017, Lynda Collins, Jo Zebedee, M. Rush, Ghosts in the Glass and Other Stories, page 216
Cite this entry
on the brew. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20brew
“on the brew.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20brew. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “on the brew,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20the%20brew.
Source: on the brew on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.