different between allowance vs sufferance

English

Alternative forms

• allowaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French alouance.

Morphologically allow +? -ance.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??la??ns/

Noun

allowance (countable and uncountable, plural allowances)

1. permission; granting, conceding, or admitting
2. Acknowledgment.
3. 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.
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair

     Some persons averred that Sir Pitt Crawley gave his brother a handsome allowance.

4. Abatement; deduction; the taking into account of mitigating circumstances
   • 1848, Thomas Babington Macaulay, The History of England from the Accession of James II

     After making the largest allowance for fraud.

5. (commerce) A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, differing by country.

6. (horse racing) A permitted reduction in the weight that a racehorse must carry.

   Antonym: penalty

7. A child's allowance; pocket money.

8. (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.
9. (obsolete) approval; approbation

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Crabbe to this entry?)

10. (obsolete) license; indulgence
    • 1695, John Locke, The Reasonableness of Christianity

      this Allowance for their Transgressions

Synonyms

• (act of allowing): authorization, permission, sanction, tolerance.
• (money): stipend
• (minting): remedy, tolerance

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

allowance (third-person singular simple present allowances, present participle allowancing, simple past and past participle allowanced)

1. (transitive) To put upon a fixed allowance (especially of provisions and drink).

2. (transitive) To supply in a fixed and limited quantity.

English

Alternative forms

• sufferaunce (obsolete)

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman suffraunce, from Late Latin sufferentia.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?s?f(?)??ns/

Noun

sufferance (countable and uncountable, plural sufferances)

1. (archaic) Endurance, especially patiently, of pain or adversity.
2. Acquiescence or tacit compliance with some circumstance, behavior, or instruction.
   • 1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

     Somewhiles by sufferance, and somewhiles by special leave and favour, they erected to themselves oratories.

   • 1910, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Lady Good-for-Nothing, chapter 20:

     When his talk trespasses beyond sufferance, I chastise him.

3. (archaic) Suffering; pain, misery.
4. (obsolete) Loss; damage; injury.
5. (Britain, historical) A permission granted by the customs authorities for the shipment of goods.

Related terms

• on sufferance

Synonyms

• acquiesce

References