different between alow vs allow

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??l??/

Etymology 1

From Middle English aloue, equivalent to a- +? low.

Adverb

alow (not comparable)

1. (now chiefly Scotland) Low down. [from 14th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.8:

     Sometimes aloft he layd, sometimes alow, / Now here, now there, and oft him neare he mist […].

2. (nautical) Towards the lower part of a vessel; towards the lower rigging or the decks. [from 16th c.]
   • 1924, Herman Melville, Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co., Chapter 26, [1]

     Ay, Ay, Ay, all is up; and I must up too / Early in the morning, aloft from alow.

Preposition

alow

1. (Scotland) Below.

See also

• aloft

Etymology 2

a- +? low, from low (“flame”).

Adjective

alow (not comparable)

1. (Scotland) alight; ablaze

Anagrams

• AWOL, awol

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.