AVOW

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does avow mean? 

• AVOW (verb)
  The verb AVOW has 2 senses:

1. to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true

2. admit openly and bluntly; make no bones about

  Familiarity information: AVOW used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AVOW (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they avow    ... he / she / it avows   
Past simple: avowed   
Past participle: avowed   
-ing form: avowing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

To declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

affirm; assert; aver; avow; swan; swear; verify

Context example:

Before God I swear I am innocent

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

declare (state emphatically and authoritatively)

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

hold (assert or affirm)

claim; take (lay claim to; as of an idea)

attest (authenticate, affirm to be true, genuine, or correct, as in an official capacity)

declare (state firmly)

protest (affirm or avow formally or solemnly)

assure; tell (inform positively and with certainty and confidence)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sentence example:

They avow that there was a traffic accident

Derivation:

avowal (a statement asserting the existence or the truth of something)

avower (someone who claims to speak the truth)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Admit openly and bluntly; make no bones about

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

avouch; avow

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

acknowledge; admit (declare to be true or admit the existence or reality or truth of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Antonym:

disavow (refuse to acknowledge; disclaim knowledge of; responsibility for, or association with)

Derivation:

avower (someone who admits or acknowledges openly and boldly)

 Context examples 

Sir Isaac Newton is said to have avowed that he felt like a child picking up shells beside the great and unexplored ocean of truth.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

And I cannot help avowing that this was the first occasion on which I really did justice to the clear head, and the plain, patient, practical good sense, of my old schoolfellow.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I was surprised at the coolness with which John avowed his knowledge of the island, and I own I was half-frightened when I saw him drawing nearer to myself.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

I could not bear to avow that which I had done.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Believe me, Mr. Morse, you are far nearer socialism than I who am its avowed enemy.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Do you wonder that I avow this to you?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

At length however she was empowered to disengage herself from her friend, by the avowed necessity of speaking to Miss Tilney, whom she most joyfully saw just entering the room with Mrs. Hughes, and whom she instantly joined, with a firmer determination to be acquainted, than she might have had courage to command, had she not been urged by the disappointment of the day before.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He had only himself to please in his choice: his fortune was his own; for as to Frank, it was more than being tacitly brought up as his uncle's heir, it had become so avowed an adoption as to have him assume the name of Churchill on coming of age.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The door was very strong, the lock excellent; the carpenter avowed he would have great trouble and have to do much damage, if force were to be used; and the locksmith was near despair.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

My avowed one, or what I avowed to myself, was to see whether your sister were still partial to Bingley, and if she were, to make the confession to him which I have since made.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)