Adjacent Words

Allowance definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ALLOW'ANCE, n.
1. The act of allowing or admitting.
2. Permission; license; approbation; sanction; usually slight approbation.
3. Admission; assent to a fact or state of things; a granting.
4. Freedom from restraint; indulgence.
5. That which is allowed; a portion appointed; a stated quantity, as of food or drink; hence, in seamen's language, a limited quantity of meat and drink, when provisions fall short.
6. Abatement; deduction; as, to make an allowance for the inexperience of youth.
7. Established character; reputation; as, a pilot of approved allowance. Obs.
ALLOW'ANCE, v.t. To put upon allowance; to restrain or limit to a certain quantity of provisions or drink.
Distress compelled the captain of the ship to allowance his crew.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an amount allowed or granted (as during a given period); "travel allowance"; "my weekly allowance of two eggs"; "a child's allowance should not be too generous"
2: a sum granted as reimbursement for expenses
3: an amount added or deducted on the basis of qualifying circumstances; "an allowance for profit" [syn: allowance, adjustment]
4: a permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits [syn: allowance, leeway, margin, tolerance]
5: a reserve fund created by a charge against profits in order to provide for changes in the value of a company's assets [syn: valuation reserve, valuation account, allowance, allowance account]
6: the act of allowing; "He objected to the allowance of smoking in the dining room" v
1: put on a fixed allowance, as of food

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Date: 14th century 1. a. a share or portion allotted or granted b. a sum granted as a reimbursement or bounty or for expenses <salary includes cost-of-living allowance>; especially a sum regularly provided for personal or household expenses <each child has an allowance> c. a fixed or available amount <provide an allowance of time for recreation> d. a reduction from a list price or stated price <a trade-in allowance> 2. an imposed handicap (as in a horse race) 3. an allowed dimensional difference between mating parts of a machine 4. the act of allowing ; permission 5. a taking into account of mitigating circumstances or contingencies <the plan makes no allowance for bad weather> II. transitive verb (-anced; -ancing) Date: 1758 1. archaic to put on a fixed allowance (as of food and drink) 2. archaic to supply in a fixed or regular quantity

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 an amount or sum allowed to a person, esp. regularly for a stated purpose. 2 an amount allowed in reckoning. 3 a deduction or discount (an allowance on your old cooker). 4 (foll. by of) tolerance of. --v.tr. 1 make an allowance to (a person). 2 supply in limited quantities. Phrases and idioms: make allowances (often foll. by for) 1 take into consideration (mitigating circumstances) (made allowances for his demented state). 2 look with tolerance upon, make excuses for (a person, bad behaviour, etc.). Etymology: ME f. OF alouance (as ALLOW)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Allowance Al*low"ance, n. [OF. alouance.] 1. Approval; approbation. [Obs.] --Crabbe. 2. The act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting; authorization; 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. [Obs.] --Locke. 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. (com.) A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, different in different countries, such as tare and tret.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Allowance Al*low"ance, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Allowancing.] [See Allowance, n.] To put upon a fixed allowance (esp. 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(allowances) 1. An allowance is money that is given to someone, usually on a regular basis, in order to help them pay for the things that they need. He lives on a single parent's allowance of £70 a week... N-COUNT: usu with supp, oft N of amount 2. A child's allowance is money that is given to him or her every week or every month by his or her parents. (mainly AM; in BRIT, use pocket money) N-COUNT: usu poss N 3. Your tax allowance is the amount of money that you are allowed to earn before you have to start paying income tax. (BRIT; in AM, use personal exemption) ...those earning less than the basic tax allowance. N-COUNT: usu with supp 4. A particular type of allowance is an amount of something that you are allowed in particular circumstances. Most of our flights have a baggage allowance of 44lbs per passenger. N-COUNT: with supp 5. If you make allowances for something, you take it into account in your decisions, plans, or actions. We'll make allowances in the schedule for time off... PHRASE: V and N inflect, oft PHR for n 6. If you make allowances for someone, you accept behaviour which you would not normally accept or deal with them less severely than you would normally, because of a problem that they have. He's tired so I'll make allowances for him. PHRASE: V inflects, oft PHR for n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Permission, leave, license, permit, authorization, connivance, sanction, authority, approval, approbation, sufferance. 2. Admission, acknowledgment, concession, assent. 3. Grant for support, stated maintenance, commission. 4. Qualification, modification, extenuation, limitation, exception. 5. Ration, stated quantity (of food or drink). II. v. a. Put upon allowance, limit in the supply of food.

Moby Thesaurus

C ration, K ration, OK, abatement, acceptance, account, acknowledgment, adjustment, admission, agio, aid, alimony, allocation, allotment, allowing, annuity, apportionment, appreciation, appropriation, approximation, assessment, assignment, assistance, authorization, avowal, bank discount, big end, bigger half, bill, bit, bite, blackmail, blood money, board, bounty, breakage, budget, bulge, cash discount, cession, chain discount, charge-off, charter, chunk, circumscription, color, commission, commons, concession, confession, consent, consideration, contingent, countenance, credit, cut, deadwood, deal, declaration, decontamination, deduction, depletion allowance, depreciation, destiny, deviation, discount, dispensation, dividend, dole, drawback, edge, emergency rations, emolument, end, equal share, exception, excuses, exemption, extenuating circumstances, extenuation, extenuative, fate, favor, fee, fellowship, field rations, financial assistance, footing, gilding, gloss, grain of salt, grant, grant-in-aid, guaranteed annual income, half, halver, handicap, head start, hedge, hedging, help, helping, hush money, imprecision, inaccuracy, inaccurateness, incorrectness, indulgence, inexactitude, inexactness, initiation fee, interest, kickback, laxity, leave, liberty, license, limitation, looseness, lot, meals, measure, meed, mental reservation, mess, mileage, mitigation, modicum, modification, moiety, negligence, odds, okay, old-age insurance, overhand, palliation, palliative, part, patent, payment, pecuniary aid, penalty, penalty clause, pension, percentage, permission, permission to enter, permit, permitting, piece, pin money, pocket money, portion, predictable error, premium, price reduction, price support, price-cut, probable error, profession, proportion, public assistance, public welfare, qualification, quantum, quota, rake-off, ration, rations, rebate, rebatement, reckoning, recognition, recompense, reduction, refund, reimbursement, release, relief, remittance, remuneration, reservation, restriction, retainer, retaining fee, retirement benefits, rollback, salvage, salvo, sanction, sanctioning, scholarship, scot, segment, setoff, share, short commons, slice, small share, softening, special case, special permission, special treatment, specialness, specification, stake, standard deviation, start, stipend, stock, subsidization, subsidy, subvention, sufferance, suffering, support, tare, tax benefit, ticket, ticket of admission, time discount, tolerance, tolerating, toleration, trade discount, tret, tribute, tucker, uncorrectness, underselling, unfactualness, unpreciseness, unrigorousness, vantage, varnish, vouchsafement, waiver, welfare, welfare aid, welfare payments, whitewash, whitewashing, write-off