Word Direct Answers

What does "allow" mean?

Allow: We commend his pains, condemn his pride, allow his life, approve his learning. Fuller.

Additional senses

  1. 2.To like; to be suited or pleased with. [Obs.] How allow you the model of these clothes Massinger.
  2. 3.To sanction; to invest; to intrust. [Obs.] Thou shalt be . . . allowed with absolute power. Shak.
  3. 4.To grant, give, admit, accord, afford, or yield; to let one have; as, to allow a servant his liberty; to allow a free passage; to allow one day for rest. He was allowed about three hundred pounds a year. Macaulay.
  4. 5.To own or acknowledge; to accept as true; to concede; to accede to an opinion; as, to allow a right; to allow a claim; to allow the truth of a proposition. I allow, with Mrs. Grundy and most moralists, that Miss Newcome's conduct . . . was highly reprehensible. Thackeray.
  5. 6.To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; esp. to abate or deduct; as, to allow a sum for leakage.
  6. 7.To grant license to; to permit; to consent to; as, to allow a son to be absent. See Permit.
  7. 8.To admit; to concede; to make allowance or abatement. Allowing still for the different ways of making it. Addison. To allow of, to permit; to admit. Shak.

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