to give permission to or for; permit: to allow a student to be absent; No swimming allowed.
2.
to let have; give as one's share; grant as one's right: to allow a person $100 for expenses.
3.
to permit by neglect, oversight, or the like: to allow a door to remain open.
4.
to admit; acknowledge; concede: to allow a claim.
5.
to take into consideration, as by adding or subtracting; set apart: to allow an hour for changing trains.
6.
Older Use.to say; think.
7.
Archaic.to approve; sanction.
verb (used without object)
8.
to permit something to happen or to exist; admit (often followed by of ): to spend more than one's budget allows; a premise that allows of only one conclusion.
Idioms
9.
allow for, to make concession or provision for: to allow for breakage.
Origin: 1250–1300;Middle Englishalowen < Anglo-Frenchal(l)o(u)er to place, allot, allow, Old Frenchaloer to place < Late Latinallocāre; see al-, locus; the older sense “approve, sanction” and Middle English sense “praise” probably by taking the Anglo-French v. as representing Medieval Latin,Latinadlaudāre to praise; see ad-, laud
Related forms
pre·al·low, verb (used with object)
Synonyms 1. Allow, let, permit imply granting or conceding the right of someone to do something. Allow and permit are often interchangeable, but permit is the more positive. Allow implies complete absence of an attempt, or even an intent, to hinder. Permit suggests formal or implied assent or authorization. Let is the familiar, conversational term for both allow and permit.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
c.1300, from O.Fr. alouer "approve," from L. allaudare, compound of ad- "to" + laudare "to praise," confused and merged in O.Fr. with alouer "assign," from L. allocare (see allocate). From the first word came the sense "permission based on approval," from the second the