AFFORD • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Afford

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/əfˈɔrd/ Listen

verb

Afford v. t. (past & past part. afforded; pres. part. affording)

1.

To give forth; to supply, yield, or produce as the natural result, fruit, or issue; as, grapes afford wine; olives afford oil; the earth affords fruit; the sea affords an abundant supply of fish.

2.

To give, grant, or confer, with a remoter reference to its being the natural result; to provide; to furnish; as, a good life affords consolation in old age. "His tuneful Muse affords the sweetest numbers." "The quiet lanes... afford calmer retreats."

3.

To offer, provide, or supply, as in selling, granting, expending, with profit, or without loss or too great injury; as, A affords his goods cheaper than B; a man can afford a sum yearly in charity.

4.

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. "The merchant can afford to trade for smaller profits." "He could afford to suffer With those whom he saw suffer."

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Etymology of 'Afford'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Afford" Quotes from Famous Books

... fail, though it affords drink for three hundred or four hundred sheep, and for at least twenty head of large cattle beside. This pond, it is true, is overhung with two moderate beeches, that, doubtless, at times afford it much supply: but then we have others as small, that, without the aid of trees, and in spite of evaporation from sun and wind, and perpetual consumption by cattle, yet constantly maintain a moderate share of water, without overflowing in the ...

— The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 2 • Gilbert White

... upon him to afford consolation under the circumstances, but Mrs Bright's mind was of that peculiar stamp which repels advances in the way of consolation unconsciously, and Buzzby was puzzled. He screwed up first the right eye and then the ...

— The World of Ice • R.M. Ballantyne

... this delicate personality? Yes, there was something good and sound in her, after all. Her husband's life was in infinite danger,—had not Brengyn said that his chances were only one in a thousand?—death stared her savagely in the face; yet she bore herself as calmly as those women who could not afford the luxury of tears or the self-indulgence of a despairing indolence; to whom tragedy was but a whip of scorpions to drive them into action. How well they all behaved, these society butterflies— Jasmine, Lady Tynemouth, and the others! But what a wonderful motherliness and impulsive sympathy ...

— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker

... should be looked after. Fence-rows and waste lands which cannot be cultivated may often be burned over to destroy the hibernating places of grape insects. As a rule, it is unwise to plant the bramble berries or even strawberries in vineyards, or adjoining vineyards, since these plants afford hibernating places and food plants for some of the grape insects, especially the destructive leaf-hopper. Lastly, precaution should be taken by destroying all wild grape-vines near vineyards, as these frequently harbor insects and diseases, the flea-beetle ...

— Manual of American Grape-Growing • U. P. Hedrick

... to the territories or the privileges they might be required to surrender. He suggested that such a procedure, while advantageous to the interests of all parties, might prove particularly for the interest of the Hudson's Bay Company. "It would afford a tribunal preeminently fitted for the dispassionate consideration of the questions at issue; it would secure a decision which would probably be rather of the nature of an arbitration than of a ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 27, January, 1860 • Various

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