AFFORD • DICCIONARIO INGLES.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

... old woman, scowling at her. "A body might think you had trouble enough of your own so't you could afford to mind your ...

— The Mission of Janice Day • Helen Beecher Long

... see you show more sense—with your confounded 'afford.' Have you any idea of bankers' books?—bankers' accounts?" Mr. Pole fished his cheque-book from a drawer and wrote Wilfrid's name and the sum, tore out the leaf and tossed it to him. "There, I've written to-day. Don't present it for a week." ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... of the gross wrongs that were heaped upon her; but as she grew older, and thought more about her condition, she scouted the idea that God had designed her to be a slave, and decided that she would be one to leave Dixey in the first Underground Rail Road train that might afford her the chance. She determined not to remain even for the sake of her husband, who was a slave. With such a will, therefore, she started. Upon leaving Philadelphia, she went with the most of her company to Boston, and thence ...

— The Underground Railroad • William Still

... South, the acquisition of California meant enhanced prestige—involving, as it would, the occupation of a large area whose soils and climate might encourage the perpetuation of slavery; it meant a rich possession which would afford her a strategic base for waging war against her northern foe; it meant a romantic field in which opportunity might be given to organize an allied republic of the Pacific, a power which would, perchance, forcibly absorb the entire Southwest and a large section of Northern ...

— The Story of the Pony Express • Glenn D. Bradley

... element, so numerous on the Ohio's banks. The renter is privileged to cultivate whatever land he can clear on the rocky, precipitous slopes, which is seldom more than half an acre to the cabin; and he may, if he can afford a cow, let her run wild in the scrub. The coal vein, a few rods back of the house, is only a few inches thick, and poor in quality, but is freely resorted to by the cotters. He worked whenever he could find a job, my host said—in the coal mines and quarries, ...

— Afloat on the Ohio - An Historical Pilgrimage of a Thousand Miles in a Skiff, from Redstone to Cairo • Reuben Gold Thwaites

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