Allowance

1. Approval; approbation. [Obs.]
2. The act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting; authorization; permission; sanction; tolerance.

   Without the king's will or the state's allowance.

3. Acknowledgment.

   The censure of the which one must in your allowance o'erweigh a whole theater of others.

4. License; indulgence. [Obs.]
5. 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, as of food or drink; hence, a limited quantity of meat and drink, when provisions fall short.

   I can give the boy a handsome allowance.

6. Abatement; deduction; the taking into account of mitigating circumstances; as, to make allowance for the inexperience of youth.

   After making the largest allowance for fraud.

7. A customary deduction from the gross weight of goods, different in different countries, such as tare and tret. (com.)

imp. & p. p. Allowancing

1. To put upon a fixed allowance (esp. of provisions and drink); to supply in a fixed and limited quantity; as, the captain was obliged to allowance his crew; our provisions were allowanced.