buroon.
/bəˈruː/, /bruː/, U.S. /bəˈru/, /bru/, Scottish English /bəˈru/, /bru/ slang (chiefly Scottish).
The Labour ‘Bureau’ or employment exchange; hence, unemployment benefit, esp. in on the buroo.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > working > labour supply > [noun] > employment exchange
employment office1801
slave market1835
registry office1839
employment agency1851
Labour Exchange1852
employment bureau1865
employment exchange1867
labour bureau1872
pool office1884
employment service1915
buroo1934
labour1934
job agency1952
job centre1970
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > grants and allowances > [noun] > state allowance > unemployment benefit
unemployment benefit1909
the dole1919
buroo1934
pineapple1937
rocking-chair money1938
susso1941
unemployment1976
society > occupation and work > lack of work > [adverb]
out of work1482
out1608
on the buroo1969
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > grants and allowances > [adverb] > receiving unemployment benefit
on welfare1933
on the susso1941
on the buroo1969
1934 D. Allan Hunger March i. vi. 76 ‘What are you, signor?’ ‘What indeed? A “moocher”? A supporter of the “buroo”?’
1937 E. Partridge Dict. Slang 111/2 Buroo or brew, an employment-exchange. Public Works' coll.: from ca. 1924.
1937 Sc. National Dict. (at cited word) Weel, weel, this is the b'roo day, nuvver mind the fushin'. Come on for oor b'roo.
1969 M. Pugh Last Place Left iv. 22 ‘You'll be on the broo as well.’ She meant that I would soon be unemployed. Nell was..inclined to use dated Scottish slang.
1969 N. Nicholson in English XVIII. 19 The Market Square is busy as the men file by To sign on at the ‘Brew’.
1978 J. Galway Autobiogr. vii. 78 The ‘buroo’ (a Belfast corruption of ‘Unemployment Bureau’) was all right, because by working and paying for your stamps, you had earned that.
1983 Listener 9 June 18/3 I can remember as a child 60 years ago hearing the unemployed..saying they were ‘on the buroo’. This was in Plumstead, London SE 18.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1989; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1934