Library / English Dictionary

AFFORD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be able to spare or give up

Example:

I can't afford to spend two hours with this person

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Hypernyms (to "afford" is one way to...):

drop; expend; spend (pay out)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Be the cause or source of

Example:

Our meeting afforded much interesting information

Synonyms:

afford; give; yield

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "afford" is one way to...):

furnish; provide; render; supply (give something useful or necessary to)

Verb group:

give (cause to have, in the abstract sense or physical sense)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "afford"):

open; open up (make available)

allow; allow for; leave; provide (make a possibility or provide opportunity for; permit to be attainable or cause to remain)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Afford access to

Example:

The French doors give onto a terrace

Synonyms:

afford; give; open

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

Sense 4

Meaning:

Have the financial means to do something or buy something

Example:

Can you afford this car?

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

affordable (that you have the financial means for)

Credits

 Context examples: 

A health insurance program for people who cannot afford regular medical care.

(Medicaid, NCI Dictionary)

However, low- and middle-income countries cannot afford to routinely use modern sequencing platforms to carry out this molecular classification.

(New method to classify brain tumour in children, SciDev.Net)

The depth of knowledge and competence in advanced clinical practice and diabetes skills affords an increased complexity of decision making, which expands the traditional discipline specific practice.

(Diabetes Management Nurse Specialist, NCI Thesaurus)

We sailors, Miss Elliot, cannot afford to make long courtships in time of war.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

There is a strict alliance between the Japanese emperor and the king of Luggnagg; which affords frequent opportunities of sailing from one island to the other.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

He had simply said, in answer to her surprised inquiries as to the change, "I can't afford it, my dear."

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

That's the fault of the tobacco. I can afford only the cheapest.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He immediately offered to fetch her others—all that his library afforded.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

"Long-distance funerals is somethin' you an' me can't exactly afford."

(White Fang, by Jack London)

We can't afford to take chances in a country like this. Two-hour spells in the future, for each of us.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)