Verb

(head)

(enable)

Verb

(enabling) (enabl)

To give strength or ability to; to make firm and strong.

* 1611 , King James Bible , "1 Tim. i. 12"

Who hath enabled me.

To make able (to do, or to be, something); to confer sufficient power upon; to furnish with means, opportunities, and the like; to render competent for; to empower; to endow.

* 1711 , October 13, (Joseph Addison), (The Spectator) , number 195

Temperance gives Nature her full play, and enables her to exert herself in all her force and vigor.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=72-3, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= A punch in the gut , passage=Mostly, the microbiome is beneficial. It helps with digestion and enables people to extract a lot more calories from their food than would otherwise be possible. Research over the past few years, however, has implicated it in diseases from atherosclerosis to asthma to autism.}}

To allow a way out or excuse for an action.

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?