allow

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To let do or happen; permit: We allow smoking only in restricted areas.
2. v. To permit the presence of: No pets are allowed inside.
3. v. To permit to have: allow oneself a little treat.
4. v. To make provision for; assign: The schedule allows time for a coffee break.
5. v. To plan for in case of need: allow two inches in the fabric for shrinkage.
6. v. To grant as a discount or in exchange: allowed me 20 dollars on my old typewriter.
7. v. Chiefly Southern & Midland U.S. To admit; concede: I allowed he was right.
8. v. Chiefly Southern & Midland U.S. To think; suppose: "We allow he's straight” ( American Speech).
9. v. Chiefly Southern & Midland U.S. To assert; declare: Mother allowed that we'd better come in for dinner.
10. v. To offer a possibility; admit: The poem allows of several interpretations.
11. v. To take a possibility into account; make allowance: In calculating profit, retailers must allow for breakage and spoilage.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To grant, give, or yield; assign; afford: as, to allow a free passage.
2. To admit; concede; confess; own; acknowledge: as, to allow the right of private judgment; he allowed that he was wrong; he allowed it might be so.
3. To abate or deduct; take into account; set apart: as, to allow so much for loss; to allow a sum for tare or leakage.
4. To grant permission to; permit: as, to allow a son to be absent.
5. To grant special license or indulgence to.
6. To invest; intrust.
7. To assert, declare, say; or, of mental assertion, to mean, purpose, intend, or, simply, think: the concessive sense presented assertively.
8. Synonyms Allow, Permit, Consent to, Sanction, Suffer, Tolerate. Allow and permit are often used synonymously; but permit strictly denotes a formal or implied assent; allow, the absence of an intent, or even only of an attempt, to hinder.
9. Consent to is formally to permit that which one has the power and generally some disposition to prevent; it implies the assumption of responsibility for that which is thus allowed. Sanction has a secondary sense of permitting with expressed or implied approbation: as, I cannot sanction such a course.
10. Suffer is still more passive or reluctant than allow, and may imply that one does not prevent something, though it is contrary to one's feelings, judgment, or sense of right. To tolerate is to bear with something unpleasant: as, I would not tolerate such impertinence. Many things are tolerated, or suffered, or even allowed, that are not permitted, and many are permitted that are not really consented to, much less sanctioned.
11. To make abatement, concession, or provision: followed by for: as, to allow for the tare.
12. To permit; admit: with of: as, “of this allow,”
13. To praise or commend; approve, justify, or sanction.

Wiktionary

1. v. To grant, give, admit, accord, afford, or yield; to let one have.
2. v. To acknowledge; to accept as true; to concede; to accede to an opinion.
3. v. To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; especially to abate or deduct;
4. v. To grant license to; to permit; to consent to.
5. v. To let something happen, to admit; to concede;
6. v. To take into account by making an allowance.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To praise; to approve of; hence, to sanction.
2. v. To like; to be suited or pleased with.
3. v. To sanction; to invest; to intrust.
4. v. To grant, give, admit, accord, afford, or yield; to let one have
5. v. To own or acknowledge; to accept as true; to concede; to accede to an opinion
6. v. To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; esp. to abate or deduct.
7. v. To grant license to; to permit; to consent to.
8. v. To admit; to concede; to make allowance or abatement.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. give or assign a resource to a particular person or cause
2. v. allow the presence of or allow (an activity) without opposing or prohibiting
3. v. allow or plan for a certain possibility; concede the truth or validity of something
4. v. consent to, give permission
5. v. afford possibility
6. v. make it possible through a specific action or lack of action for something to happen
7. v. let have
8. v. allow the other (baseball) team to score
9. v. grant as a discount or in exchange
10. v. make a possibility or provide opportunity for; permit to be attainable or cause to remain