Noun

(en noun)

The act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting; authorization; permission; sanction; tolerance.

* Without the king's will or the state's allowance. --

Acknowledgment.

* The censure of the which one must in your allowance overweigh a whole theater of others. --

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. -- .

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. -- .

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

A child's allowance; pocket money.

She gives her daughters each an allowance of thirty dollars a month.

(minting) A permissible deviation in the fineness and weight of coins, owing to the difficulty in securing exact conformity to the standard prescribed by law.

(obsolete) approval; approbation

(Crabbe)

(obsolete) license; indulgence

(John Locke)

Noun

(uncountable) Health, safety, happiness and prosperity; well-being in any respect.

* , chapter=19

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare . Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}

(uncountable, chiefly, US) Various forms of financial aid provided by the government to those who are in need of it (abbreviated form of Welfare assistance ).