afford
Pronunciation
  • (GA) enPR: ə-fōrdʹ, IPA: /əˈfoɹd/, /əˈfɔɹd/
  • (RP) IPA: /əˈfɔːd/
  • (rhotic, horse-hoarse) IPA: /əˈfo(ː)ɹd/
  • (nonrhotic, horse-hoarse) IPA: /əˈfoəd/
Verb

afford (affords, present participle affording; past and past participle afforded)

  1. To incur, stand, or bear without serious detriment, as an act which might under other circumstances be injurious;—with an auxiliary, as can, could, might, etc.; to be able or rich enough.
    I think we can afford the extra hour it will take.  We can only afford to buy a small car at the moment.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314 ↗, page 0088 ↗:
      “[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic? […]”
  2. To offer, provide, or supply, as in selling, granting, expending, with profit, or without loss or too great injury.
    A affords his goods cheaper than B.
  3. To give forth; to supply, yield, or produce as the natural result, fruit, or issue.
    Grapes afford wine.  Olives afford oil.  The earth affords fruit.  The sea affords an abundant supply of fish.
  4. To give, grant, or confer, with a remoter reference to its being the natural result; to provide; to furnish.
    A good life affords consolation in old age.
Translations
  • French: permettre
  • German: leisten, imstande sein
  • Italian: permettersi
  • Portuguese: conseguir pagar, lidar
  • Russian: позволять
  • Spanish: costear, permitirse
Translations Translations


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