I. əˈlau̇ən(t)s noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English allowaunce, from Middle French allouaunce approbation (from allouer to approve + -aunce -ance) & alouaunce action of leasing, from aloer, alouer to place, use, grant + -aunce -ance
1.
a. archaic : approval , approbation
b. obsolete : acknowledgment
2. : something that is allowed : a share or portion allotted or granted
an allowance of time for stopovers
allowances for depreciation
a.
(1) : a sum granted as a reimbursement or a bounty or as appropriate for such purposes as personal or household expenses
an officer's pay and allowances
a schoolboy's weekly allowance
per diem allowances in lieu of subsistence — U.S. Code
cost-of-living allowances
spending the winter in California on the allowance he gets — Hamilton Basso
(2) law : a sum in addition to the regular taxable costs awarded by court to a party in a difficult case — called also extra allowance
b. : a fixed amount allowed
a sailor's daily allowance of grog
the 66-pound free-luggage allowance granted by transatlantic air lines
c.
(1) : a customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, different in different countries
(2) : a reduction from a list price or stated price (as one granted on used products turned in or because of a previous credit)
a trade-in allowance
d. : a concession or privilege accorded a contestant to make his chances more nearly equal to his competitors': as
(1) : an allowed deduction from the weight a racehorse is required to carry
maidens were given special allowances
(2) : a deduction from the actual elapsed time of a racing yacht computed against a scratch boat's elapsed time
e. : nonproductive time added in time study to the actual or base time of an operation to allow for fatigue, personal needs, and delays — compare base time , standard time
f. : clearance in founding
g. : an allowed dimensional difference between mating parts of a machine (as between a shaft and a bearing in which it turns) — compare tolerance 3
3. : the act of allowing : authorization , permission , sanction
without the king's will or the state's allowance — Shakespeare
no newspaper was suffered to appear without his allowance — T.B.Macaulay
4. : the taking into account of circumstances (as mitigating circumstances) or of contingencies — often used with the verb make and the preposition for
make allowances for the inexperience of youth
allowance must be made for what was then the fashionable pose — R.B.Merriman
regional differences must be recognized and allowance made for them in any generalizations — C.R.Woodward
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
1. : to put upon a fixed allowance (as of provisions and drink)
the captain allowanced his crew
2. : to supply in a fixed and limited quantity