AVOWAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does avowal mean? 

• AVOWAL (noun)
  The noun AVOWAL has 1 sense:

1. a statement asserting the existence or the truth of something

  Familiarity information: AVOWAL used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• AVOWAL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A statement asserting the existence or the truth of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

affirmation; avouchment; avowal

Hypernyms ("avowal" is a kind of...):

assertion; asseveration; averment (a declaration that is made emphatically (as if no supporting evidence were necessary))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "avowal"):

reaffirmation; reassertion (renewed affirmation)

professing; profession (an open avowal (true or false) of some belief or opinion)

affirmative (a reply of affirmation)

Derivation:

avow (to declare or affirm solemnly and formally as true)

 Context examples 

So true are these avowals at the present day, that I can now only take the reader into one confidence more.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

And when I received their cold answers and heard the harsh, unfeeling reasoning of these men, my purposed avowal died away on my lips.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Henry, in having such things to relate of his father, was almost as pitiable as in their first avowal to himself.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

These words, which conveyed to Elinor a direct avowal of his love for her sister, affected her very much.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

This he considered sufficient encouragement; and the avowal of all that he felt, and had long felt for her, immediately followed.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The water stood in my eyes to hear this avowal of his dependence; just as if a royal eagle, chained to a perch, should be forced to entreat a sparrow to become its purveyor.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

But his pride, his abominable pride—his shameless avowal of what he had done with respect to Jane—his unpardonable assurance in acknowledging, though he could not justify it, and the unfeeling manner in which he had mentioned Mr. Wickham, his cruelty towards whom he had not attempted to deny, soon overcame the pity which the consideration of his attachment had for a moment excited.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

In such a case, a plain and open avowal of his difficulties would have been more to his honour I think, as well as more consistent with his general character;—but I will not raise objections against any one's conduct on so illiberal a foundation, as a difference in judgment from myself, or a deviation from what I may think right and consistent.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

The next morning, however, made an alteration; for in a quarter of an hour's tete-a-tete with Mrs. Bennet before breakfast, a conversation beginning with his parsonage-house, and leading naturally to the avowal of his hopes, that a mistress might be found for it at Longbourn, produced from her, amid very complaisant smiles and general encouragement, a caution against the very Jane he had fixed on.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)