allow

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Contents

English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

From Middle English allouen, from Old French alouer , from Medieval Latin allaudāre, present active infinitive of allaudō, merged with alouer, from Medieval Latin allocō (“to assign”).

Pronunciation [edit]

Verb [edit]

allow (third-person singular simple present allows, present participle allowing, simple past and past participle allowed)

  1. (transitive) To grant, give, admit, accord, afford, or yield; to let one have.
    To allow a servant his liberty
    To allow a free passage
    To allow one day for rest.
    • 2004, Constance Garnett (translator), Anton Chekhov (Russian author), “Ariadne”, in The Darling: and Other Stories:
      […] he needed a great deal of money, but his uncle only allowed him two thousand roubles a year, which was not enough, and for days together he would run about Moscow with his tongue out, as the saying is.
  2. (transitive) To acknowledge; to accept as true; to concede; to accede to an opinion.
    To allow a right
    To allow a claim
    To allow the truth of a proposition.
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Makepeace Thackeray:
      I allow, with Mrs. Grundy and most moralists, that Miss Newcome's conduct . . . was highly reprehensible.
  3. (transitive) To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; especially to abate or deduct;
    To allow a sum for leakage.
  4. (transitive) To grant license to; to permit; to consent to.
    To allow a son to be absent
    Smoking allowed only in designated areas.
    • 1992, Rudolf M. Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, page vii
      With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get […]
  5. To not bar or obstruct.
    Although I don't consent to their holding such meetings, I will allow them for the time being.
  6. (intransitive) To acknowledge or concede.
    • 2000, George RR Martin, A Storm of Swords, Bantam (2011), page 154:
      Half the night passed before the wench allowed that it might be safe to stop.
  7. (transitive) To take into account by making an allowance.
    When calculating a budget for a construction project, always allow for contingencies.
  8. (transitive) To render physically possible

Synonyms [edit]

Derived terms [edit]

Translations [edit]

to grant, give, admit, accord, afford, or yield; to let one have
to acknowledge; to accept as true; to concede; to accede to an opinion
to take into account as a deduction or an addition
to permit
to let something happen, to admit, to concede
to make allowance
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

References [edit]

Statistics [edit]

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