allow

Definition of allow

Etymology

From Middle English allouen, from Old French alouer, from Medieval Latin allaudāre ("to praise"), (ad-) + laudare, merged with alouer, from Medieval Latin allocāre ("to assign").

Pronunciation

• IPA: /əˈlaʊ/, SAMPA: /@"laU/
• enPR: ə-lou'
• Audio (US) ^[?]
• Rhymes: -aʊ

Verb

to 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.
   He was allowed about three hundred pounds a year. - Thomas Babington Macaulay.
   
   
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.
   I allow, with Mrs. Grundy and most moralists, that Miss Newcome's conduct . . . was highly reprehensible. - William Makepeace Thackeray.
   
   
3. (transitive) To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; esp. 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.
   
   
5. (intransitive) To let something happen, to admit; to concede;
6. (transitive) To take into account by making an allowance.
   
   When calculating a budget for a construction project, always allow for contingencies.

Synonyms

• allot
• assign
• bestow
• concede
• admit
• permit
• suffer
• tolerate

Derived terms

• allowance

References

• allow in Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913