Bible dictionaries

Allow

What Bible dictionaries say about “Allow”, one article after the other.

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Allow - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

ALLOW', v.t. [L. loco, to lay, set, place. See Lay.]

1. To grant, give or yield; as, to allow a servant his liberty; to allow a pension.

2. To admit; as, to allow the truth of a proposition; to allow a claim.

3. To admit; to own or acknowledge; as, to allow the right of the President to displace officers.

4. To approve, justify or sanction.

Ye allow the deeds of your fathers. Luke 11. Rom 8.

5. To afford, or grant as a compensation; as, to allow a dollar a day for wages.

6. To abate or deduct; as, to allow a sum for tare or leakage.

7. To permit; to grant license to; as, to allow a son to be absent.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

Easton’s Bible Dictionary & Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

Allowance - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

ALLOW'ANCE, n.

1. The act of allowing or admitting.

2. Permission; license; approbation; sanction; usually slight approbation.

3. Admission; assent to a fact or state of things; a granting.

4. Freedom from restraint; indulgence.

5. That which is allowed; a portion appointed; a stated quantity, as of food or drink; hence, in seamen's language, a limited quantity of meat and drink, when provisions fall short.

6. Abatement; deduction; as, to make an allowance for the inexperience of youth.

7. Established character; reputation; as, a pilot of approved allowance. Obs.

ALLOW'ANCE, v.t. To put upon allowance; to restrain or limit to a certain quantity of provisions or drink.

Distress compelled the captain of the ship to allowance his crew.

Matthew George Easton, Easton’s Bible Dictionary; Noah Webster, American Dictionary of the English Language (1828)

The article in Easton + Webster 1828

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE 1915)

a-lou', a-lou'-ans: The verb "to allow" is used in the King James Version to translate four different Greek words:

(1) suneudokeo, "to approve together" (with others) (the Revised Version (British and American) "consent unto"), Lu 11:48.

(2) prosdechomai, "to receive to oneself," "admit" (the Revised Version (British and American) "look for," margin "accept"); Ac 24:15.

(3) ginosko, "to know," "recognize": "That which I do, I allow not" (the Revised Version (British and American) "I know not"), i.e. "I do not understand what I am doing, my conduct is inexplicable to me" (Grimm-Thayer); Ro 7:15.

(4) dokimazo, "to prove," "approve." "Happy is he that condemneth not himself in the thing which he alloweth" (the Revised Version (British and American) "approveth," i.e. in practice), i.e. who is not troubled with scruples; Ro 14:22. Thus the Revised Version (British and American) has removed the verb "allow" in each case in which it occurs in the King James Version, it being somewhat ambiguous in meaning (its original sense, as derived from Latin allocare, "to place," "assign," "grant," being influenced by another word, Latin allaudare, "to praise"). The noun "allowance" occurs in the sense of quantity of food allowed, in 2Ki 25:30 (King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American)) and the parallel passage Jer 52:34 (RV; "diet" in the King James Version).

D. Miall Edwards

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia — James Orr, general editor and contributors; CrossWire SWORD module ISBE 2.2

The article in ISBE 1915