AFFORD

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does afford mean? 

• AFFORD (verb)
  The verb AFFORD has 4 senses:

1. be able to spare or give up

2. be the cause or source of

3. have the financial means to do something or buy something

4. afford access to

  Familiarity information: AFFORD used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AFFORD (verb)

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

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Context example:

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

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

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

afford; give; yield

Context example:

Our meeting afforded much interesting information

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:

Have the financial means to do something or buy something

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

Can you afford this car?

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

affordable (that you have the financial means for)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Afford access to

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

afford; give; open

Context example:

The French doors give onto a terrace

Sentence frame:

Something is ----ing PP

 Context examples 

But for particulars Isabella could well afford to wait.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

I picked out one who has afforded me a study of much interest.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Any new property you would find would be spacious, sunny, and likely afford you a view.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

But at last he made a trip—only a little, little trip—but it was more than he could afford when I was so close upon him.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

With four hundred miles of trail still between him and Dawson, he could ill afford to have madness break out among his dogs.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Affording unobstructed entrance and exit; affording free passage or access; accessible to all.

(Open, NCI Thesaurus)

The evening had afforded Edmund little pleasure.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

It would be difficult to name any articles which afford a finer field for inference than a pair of glasses, especially so remarkable a pair as these.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Are you certain that you can afford to part with so much money, and that it is right that it should be so expended?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Any technique in which a sample is condensed in order to afford greater sensitivity for the detection of microorganisms.

(Microbial Concentration Method, NCI Thesaurus)