Library / English Dictionary

ALLOT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: allotted    , allotting   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Give out

Example:

We were assigned new uniforms

Synonyms:

allot; assign; portion

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

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

administer; allot; deal; deal out; dish out; dispense; distribute; dole out; lot; mete out; parcel out; shell out (administer or bestow, as in small portions)

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

allow; appropriate; earmark; reserve; set aside (give or assign a resource to a particular person or cause)

allocate; apportion (distribute according to a plan or set apart for a special purpose)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Allow to have

Example:

grant a privilege

Synonyms:

accord; allot; grant

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

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

give (transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody)

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

give (accord by verdict)

enfranchise (grant voting rights)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Administer or bestow, as in small portions

Example:

the machine dispenses soft drinks

Synonyms:

administer; allot; deal; deal out; dish out; dispense; distribute; dole out; lot; mete out; parcel out; shell out

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

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

give (transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody)

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

allot; assign; portion (give out)

reallot (allot again)

deal (distribute cards to the players in a game)

apply; give (give or convey physically)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sentence examples:

They allot the food to the people

They allot the people the food

Derivation:

allotment (the act of distributing by allotting or apportioning; distribution according to a plan)

Credits

 Context examples: 

When I thought of my family, my friends, my countrymen, or the human race in general, I considered them, as they really were, Yahoos in shape and disposition, perhaps a little more civilized, and qualified with the gift of speech; but making no other use of reason, than to improve and multiply those vices whereof their brethren in this country had only the share that nature allotted them.

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

They returned within the time Hannah had allotted them: they entered by the kitchen door.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)