| / English Dictionary |
AFFORD
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they afford ... he / she / it affords
Past simple: afforded
Past participle: afforded
-ing form: affording
Sense 1
Meaning:
Be able to spare or give up
Example:
I can't afford to spend two hours with this person
Classified under:
Hypernyms (to "afford" is one way to...):
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Sense 2
Meaning:
Be the cause or source of
Example:
Our meeting afforded much interesting information
Synonyms:
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)
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)
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