| allowance | 1. Approval; approbation. 2. The act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting; authorisation; permission; sanction; tolerance. "Without the king's will or the state's allowance." (Shak) 3. Acknowledgment. "The censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theater of others." (Shak) 4. License; indulgence. 5. That which is allowed; a share or portion allotted or granted; a sum granted as a reimbursement, a bounty, or as appropriate for any purpose; a stated quantity, as of food or drink; hence, a limited quantity of meat and drink, when provisions fall short. "I can give the boy a handsome allowance." (Thackeray) 6. Abatement; deduction; the taking into account of mitigating circumstances; as, to make allowance for the inexperience of youth. "After making the largest allowance for fraud." (Macaulay) 7. A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, different in different countries, such as tare and tret. Origin: OF. Alouance. To put upon a fixed allowance (especially. Of provisions and drink); to supply in a fixed and limited quantity; as, the captain was obliged to allowance his crew; our provisions were allowanced. Origin: See Allowance. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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