online medical dictionary | definition of allowance

1. Approval; approbation.

2. The act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting; authorisation; 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.

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. A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, different in different countries, such as tare and tret.

Origin: OF. Alouance.

To put upon a fixed allowance (especially. 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.

Origin: See Allowance.

(01 Mar 1998)