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.
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.