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?

Verb

(en verb)

To keep in possession or use.

* Milton

Be obedient, and retain / Unalterably firm his love entire.

* 1856 : (Gustave Flaubert), (Madame Bovary), Part III Chapter XI, translated by Eleanor Marx-Aveling

A strange thing was that Bovary, while continually thinking of Emma, was forgetting her. He grew desperate as he felt this image fading from his memory in spite of all efforts to retain it. Yet every night he dreamt of her; it was always the same dream. He drew near her, but when he was about to clasp her she fell into decay in his arms.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)

, title=(The China Governess) , chapter=1 citation , passage=The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.}}

To keep in one's pay or service.

* Addison

A Benedictine convent has now retained the most learned father of their order to write in its defence.

To employ by paying a retainer.

To hold secure.

(obsolete) To restrain; to prevent.

(obsolete) To belong; to pertain.

* Boyle

A somewhat languid relish, retaining to bitterness.