\Al*low"ance\, n. [OF. alouance.]
1. Approval; approbation. [Obs.] --Crabbe.
2. The act of allowing, granting, conceding, or admitting;
   authorization; permission; sanction; tolerance.
         Without the king's will or the state's allowance.
                                               --Shak.
3. Acknowledgment.
         The censure of the which one must in your allowance
         o'erweigh a whole theater of others.  --Shak.
4. License; indulgence. [Obs.] --Locke.
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.
                                               --Thackeray.
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.
                                               --Macaulay.
7. (com.) A customary deduction from the gross weight of
   goods, different in different countries, such as tare and
   tret.

\Al*low"ance\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Allowancing}.]
[See {Allowance}, n.]
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.