Library / English Dictionary

VOUCHSAFE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Grant in a condescending manner

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

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

allow; grant (let have)

Sentence frames:

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

Credits

 Context examples: 

It was in the nature of things, that he must learn quickly if he were to survive the unusually severe conditions under which life was vouchsafed him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“Mr. Dixon is very musical, is he? We shall know more about them all, in half an hour, from you, than Miss Fairfax would have vouchsafed in half a year.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He spoke without enthusiasm; and the first man, limping into the milky stream that foamed over the rocks, vouchsafed no reply.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

And how impossible did it appear to touch the inmates of this house with concern on my behalf; to make them believe in the truth of my wants and woes—to induce them to vouchsafe a rest for my wanderings!

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

When the note was shown to Elinor, as it was within ten minutes after its arrival, it gave her, for the first time, some share in the expectations of Lucy; for such a mark of uncommon kindness, vouchsafed on so short an acquaintance, seemed to declare that the good-will towards her arose from something more than merely malice against herself; and might be brought, by time and address, to do every thing that Lucy wished.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I pray you then my fair dove, that you will vouchsafe to me one of those doeskin gloves, that I may wear it as the badge of her whose servant I shall ever be.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

White Fang had come straight from the Wild, where the weak perish early and shelter is vouchsafed to none.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I am delighted to find that you can vouchsafe to let your imagination wander—but it will not do—very sorry to check you in your first essay—but indeed it will not do.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Hannah had told me in the morning there was a letter for me, and when I went down to take it, almost certain that the long-looked for tidings were vouchsafed me at last, I found only an unimportant note from Mr. Briggs on business.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

My master has heard that there is jousting here, and prospect of honorable advancement, so he has come to ask that some English cavalier will vouchsafe for the love of his lady to run a course with sharpened lances with him, or to meet him with sword, mace, battle-axe, or dagger.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)