Al*low" (?), v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Allowed (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Allowing.] [OE. alouen, OF. alouer, aloer,
aluer, F. allouer, fr. LL. allocare to admit as
proved, to place, use; confused with OF. aloer, fr. L.
allaudare to extol; ad + laudare to praise. See
Local, and cf. Allocate, Laud.] 1.
To praise; to approve of; hence, to sanction. [Obs. or
Archaic]
Ye allow the deeds of your fathers.
Luke xi. 48.
We commend his pains, condemn his pride, allow his
life, approve his learning.
Fuller.
2. To like; to be suited or pleased with.
[Obs.]
How allow you the model of these clothes?
Massinger.
3. To sanction; to invest; to intrust.
[Obs.]
Thou shalt be . . . allowed with absolute power.
Shak.
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.
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.
6. To grant (something) as a deduction or an
addition; esp. to abate or deduct; as, to allow a sum for
leakage.
7. To grant license to; to permit; to consent to;
as, to allow a son to be absent.
Syn. -- To allot; assign; bestow; concede; admit; permit; suffer;
tolerate. See Permit.
Al*low", v. i. 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.