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Allow vs Force - What's the difference?

allow | force |

As a verb allow

is to grant, give, admit, accord, afford, or yield; to let one have.

As a noun force is

force.

allow

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To grant, give, admit, accord, afford, or yield; to let one have.
  • * 2004 , Constance Garnett (translator), Anton Chekhov (Russian author), “Ariadne”, in The Darling: and Other Stories :
  • he needed a great deal of money, but his uncle only allowed him two thousand roubles a year, which was not enough, and for days together he would run about Moscow with his tongue out, as the saying is.
  • To acknowledge; to accept as true; to concede; to accede to an opinion.
  • * 1855 , (William Makepeace Thackeray), (The Newcomes)
  • I allow , with Mrs. Grundy and most moralists, that Miss Newcome's conductwas highly reprehensible.
  • To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; especially to abate or deduct.
  • To grant license to; to permit; to consent to.
  • *
  • With fresh material, taxonomic conclusions are leavened by recognition that the material examined reflects the site it occupied; a herbarium packet gives one only a small fraction of the data desirable for sound conclusions. Herbarium material does not, indeed, allow one to extrapolate safely: what you see is what you get
  • To not bar or obstruct.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)
  • , volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= How algorithms rule the world , passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.}}
  • To acknowledge or concede.
  • * 2000 , (George RR Martin), A Storm of Swords , Bantam (2011), page 154:
  • Half the night passed before the wench allowed that it might be safe to stop.
  • To take into account by making an allowance.
  • When calculating a budget for a construction project, always allow for contingencies.
  • To render physically possible.
  • * 1824 , (Washington Irving), :
  • The inlet allowed a facility to bring the money in a boat secretly and at night to the very foot of the hill.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
  • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • (obsolete) To praise; to approve of; hence, to sanction.
  • * Bible, Luke xi. 48
  • Ye allow the deeds of your fathers.
  • * Fuller
  • We commend his pains, condemn his pride, allow his life, approve his learning.
  • (obsolete) To sanction; to invest; to entrust.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Thou shalt be allowed with absolute power.
  • (obsolete) To like; to be suited or pleased with.
  • * Massinger
  • How allow you the model of these clothes?

    Synonyms

    * allot, assign, bestow, concede, admit, let, permit, suffer, tolerate

    Derived terms

    * allowance * allowable

    References

    *

    Statistics

    * English control verbs

    force

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) force, fors, forse, from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (wikipedia force)
  • Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
  • :
  • * (1800-1859)
  • *:He was, in the full force of the words, a good man.
  • Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
  • *(William Shakespeare), Henry VI, part II
  • *:which now they hold by force , and not by right
  • (lb) Anything that is able to make a big change in a person or thing.
  • A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body which is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn)
  • Something or anything that has the power to produce an effect upon something else.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=(Henry Petroski), volume=100, issue=2, page=112-3
  • , magazine=(American Scientist) , title= Opening Doors , passage=A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.}}
  • (lb) A group that aims to attack, control, or constrain.
  • :
  • *(William Shakespeare), (Cymbeline)
  • *:Is Lucius general of the forces ?
  • *
  • *:"A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there.."
  • *{{quote-news, year=2004, date=April 15, work=The Scotsman
  • , title= Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer , passage=For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force , which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year.}}
  • (lb) The ability to attack, control, or constrain.
  • :
  • (lb) A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person.
  • (lb) Legal validity.
  • :
  • (lb) Either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry ", or lawful compulsion.
  • Usage notes
    * Adjectives often applied to "force": military, cultural, economic, gravitational, electric, magnetic, strong, weak, positive, negative, attractive, repulsive, good, evil, dark, physical, muscular, spiritual, intellectual, mental, emotional, rotational, tremendous, huge.
    Derived terms
    (Terms derived from "force") * air force * antiforce * brute force * centripetal force * centrifugal force * Coulomb force * Coriolis force * come into force * force field * force multiplier * force to be reckoned with * fundamental force * police force * spent force * task force * workforce

    Verb

    (forc)
  • (lb) To violate (a woman); to rape.
  • *:
  • *:For yf ye were suche fyfty as ye be / ye were not able to make resystence ageynst this deuyl / here lyeth a duchesse deede the whiche was the fayrest of alle the world wyf to syre Howel / duc of Bretayne / he hath murthred her in forcynge her / and has slytte her vnto the nauyl
  • *, II.1:
  • *:a young woman not farre from mee had headlong cast her selfe out of a high window, with intent to kill herselfe, only to avoid the ravishment of a rascally-base souldier that lay in her house, who offered to force her.
  • *, Bk.XVIII, Ch.xxi:
  • *:And I pray you for my sake to force yourselff there, that men may speke you worshyp.
  • (lb) To compel (someone or something) (to) do something.
  • *
  • *:Captain Edward Carlisle; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
  • *2011 , Tim Webb & Fiona Harvey, The Guardian , 23 March:
  • *:Housebuilders had warned that the higher costs involved would have forced them to build fewer homes and priced many homebuyers out of the market.
  • (lb) To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of.
  • *, I.40:
  • *:Shall wee force the general law of nature, which in all living creatures under heaven is seene to tremble at paine?
  • (lb) To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb).
  • *(John Dryden) (1631-1700)
  • *:It stuck so fast, so deeply buried lay / That scarce the victor forced the steel away.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:to force the tyrant from his seat by war
  • *(John Webster) (c.1580-c.1634)
  • *:Ethelbert ordered that none should be forced into religion.
  • *2007 , (The Guardian) , 4 November:
  • *:In a groundbreaking move, the Pentagon is compensating servicemen seriously hurt when an American tank convoy forced them off the road.
  • (lb) To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force.
  • :
  • *2009 , "All things to Althingi", (The Economist) , 23 July:
  • *:The second problem is the economy, the shocking state of which has forced the decision to apply to the EU.
  • (lb) To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.).
  • :
  • To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
  • To create an out by touching a base in advance of a runner who has no base to return to while in possession of a ball which has already touched the ground.
  • :
  • (lb) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit that he/she does not hold.
  • (lb) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
  • *(John Webster) (c.1580-c.1634)
  • *:What can the church force more?
  • (lb) To provide with forces; to reinforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
  • :(Shakespeare)
  • (lb) To allow the force of; to value; to care for.
  • *(William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • *:For me, I force not argument a straw.
  • Derived terms
    * enforce * forceful * forcible

    See also

    * Imperial unit: foot pound * metric unit: newton * coerce: To control by force.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (countable, Northern England) A waterfall or cascade.
  • * T. Gray
  • to see the falls or force of the river Kent

    Etymology 3

    See .

    Verb

    (forc)
  • To stuff; to lard; to farce.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit.

    Statistics

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