allowance

n. [ OF. alouance. ] 1. Approval; approbation. [ Obs. ] Crabbe. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting; authorization; permission; sanction; tolerance. [ 1913 Webster ]

Without the king's will or the state's allowance. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Acknowledgment. [ 1913 Webster ]

The censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theater of others. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. License; indulgence. [ Obs. ] Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

I can give the boy a handsome allowance. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Abatement; deduction; the taking into account of mitigating circumstances; as, to make allowance for the inexperience of youth. [ 1913 Webster ]

After making the largest allowance for fraud. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (com.) A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, different in different countries, such as tare and tret. [ 1913 Webster ]