avow
Etymology

From Middle English avowen, from Old French avouer, from Latin advoco, from ad ("to") + vocare ("to call").

Pronunciation
  • IPA: /əˈvaʊ/
Verb

avow (avows, present participle avowing; simple past and past participle avowed)

  1. (transitive) To declare openly and boldly, as something believed to be right; to own, acknowledge or confess frankly.
    • 1858, Henry Stephens Randall, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, volume 1, page 461:
      […] in 1786, and for some period later, there were few, if any, prominent Americans, who avowed themselves in favor of broadly democratic systems.
  2. (transitive) To bind or devote by a vow.
  3. (legal) To acknowledge and justify, as an act done. See avowry.
    • 1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC ↗:
      avow himself the accomplice of his crimes
Antonyms Related terms Translations Noun

avow

  1. (obsolete) avowal
    • 1697, Virgil, “The Twelfth Book of the Æneis”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗:
      without thy Knowledge and Avow



This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.001
Offline English dictionary