different between allow vs deserve

English

Etymology

From Middle English allowen, alowen, a borrowing from Anglo-Norman allouer, alouer, from Medieval Latin allaud?re, present active infinitive of allaud?, merged with alouer, from Medieval Latin alloc? (“to assign”). The similarity with Middle English alyfen (from Old English ?l?fan, ?l?efan) and German erlauben, both from Proto-Germanic *uzlaubijan? (“to allow”) is coincidental.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??la?/
• enPR: ?-lou'
• Rhymes: -a?

Verb

allow (third-person singular simple present allows, present participle allowing, simple past and past participle allowed)

1. (transitive) To grant, give, admit, accord, afford, or yield; to let one have.
2. (transitive) To acknowledge; to accept as true; to concede; to accede to an opinion.
3. (transitive) To grant (something) as a deduction or an addition; especially to abate or deduct.

4. (transitive) To grant license to; to permit; to consent to.
5. To not bar or obstruct.
6. (transitive) To take into account by making an allowance.

7. (transitive) To render physically possible.
8. (transitive, obsolete) To praise; to approve of; hence, to sanction.
9. (obsolete) To sanction; to invest; to entrust.
10. (transitive, obsolete) To like; to be suited or pleased with.

Synonyms

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

Derived terms

Related terms

• allowance
• disallow

Translations

References

• allow in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

English

Etymology

From Middle English deserven, from Old French deservir, from Latin d?servi?, from d?- + servi?.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /d??z??v/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /d??z?v/
• Hyphenation: de?serve
• Rhymes: -??(?)v

Verb

deserve (third-person singular simple present deserves, present participle deserving, simple past and past participle deserved)

1. (transitive) To be entitled to, as a result of past actions; to be worthy to have.

   After playing so well, the team really deserved their win.

   After what he did, he deserved to go to prison.

   This argument deserves a closer examination.

   • 1853, William Makepeace Thackeray, The English Humorists of the Eighteenth Century

     John Gay deserved to be a favourite.
2. (obsolete) To earn, win.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.vii:

     That gentle Lady, whom I loue and serue, / After long suit and weary seruicis, / Did aske me, how I could her loue deserue, / And how she might be sure, that I would neuer swerue.

3. (obsolete) To reward, to give in return for service.
   • 1603?, William Shakespeare, Othello:

4. (obsolete) To serve; to treat; to benefit.
   • c. 1619–22, Philip Massinger and John Fletcher, A Very Woman

     A man that hath / So well deserved me.

Usage notes

• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive. See Appendix:English catenative verbs
• This is generally a stative verb that rarely takes the continuous inflection. See Category:English stative verbs

Synonyms

• merit
• See also Thesaurus:deserve

Derived terms

• well-deserved

Related terms

• desert
• serve somebody right

Translations

Further reading

• deserve at OneLook Dictionary Search
• deserve in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Veeders, severed