The Collaborative International Dictionary
Afford \Af*ford"\ ([a^]f*f[=o]rd"), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Afforded; p. pr. & vb. n. Affording.] [OE. aforthen, AS. gefor[eth]ian, for[eth]ian, to further, accomplish, afford, fr. for[eth] forth, forward. The prefix ge- has no well defined sense. See Forth.]
To give forth; to supply, yield, or produce as the natural result, fruit, or issue; as, grapes afford wine; olives afford oil; the earth affords fruit; the sea affords an abundant supply of fish.
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To give, grant, or confer, with a remoter reference to its being the natural result; to provide; to furnish; as, a good life affords consolation in old age.
His tuneful Muse affords the sweetest numbers.
--Addison.The quiet lanes . . . afford calmer retreats.
--Gilpin. To offer, provide, or supply, as in selling, granting, expending, with profit, or without loss or too great injury; as, A affords his goods cheaper than B; a man can afford a sum yearly in charity.
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To incur, stand, or bear without serious detriment, as an act which might under other circumstances be injurious; -- with an auxiliary, as can, could, might, etc.; to be able or rich enough.
The merchant can afford to trade for smaller profits.
--Hamilton.He could afford to suffer With those whom he saw suffer.
--Wordsworth.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of afford English)
Usage examples of "affording".
We had the whole evening before us, and as she had told me that she had never gone to a theatre, I resolved on affording her that pleasure.
I told all my anecdotes so racily that his features expressed the pleasure I was affording him, and when we rose from the table he shook me by the hand, and told me he had not had so agreeable a dinner since he had been at Soleure.
But the peculiar infelicity of the Byzantine princes exposed them to domestic perils, without affording any lively promise of foreign conquest.
That employment should be wanted for the people, while one-third of Ireland is as much waste as the woods in Canada, and the rest badly cultivated, not affording half labour, is a strange anomaly.
Loodiana, at once securing his own force, and affording safety to the garrison.
The bulk of the British army remained in the Punjaub for some months, various circumstances affording grounds for suspicion as to the good faith of the ranee and her durbar.
It is proposed to instruct the coast-guard by means of ship platform batteries of one gun each, constructed exactly similar to the ports of a man-of-war, placed in a position in each district convenient for the drill of fifty men, and in a situation in which it may be rendered available for defence, as well as affording a range to sea for practice.
Louis Philippe found a home in England, at first at Claremont, and then in Abingdon House, Kensington, where he lived for some time in apparently tranquil enjoyment, the delightful and salubrious vicinity affording to his family means of retired and pleasurable recreation.
The delineation was faithful, and aided very much in rendering concealment difficult, for it prevented the timid from affording shelter to the chiefs as soon as they became fugitives.
The simple truth evoked was, that while a committee of the house supposed that they were possessed of full and complete reports, they were supplied with only curt and crude extracts, calculated to place matters in the ministerial light, but not really affording the committee the opinions of those whose views they purported to be.
These communications, although affording intelligence which was, unfortunately, too true, were in several respects erroneous.
It was a magnificent spectacle, affording one of the most gorgeous and glorious displays of naval power ever presented to the eyes of even a British sovereign.
Even this manner of building, though affording a certain security against slight tremblings, is not safe in the greater shocks.
In some relatively rare cases salt deposits are formed in lagoons along the shores of arid lands, where the sea occasionally breaks over the beach into the basin, affording waters which are evaporated, leaving their salt behind them.
Barbfor she could find no appetite for the meal poor Ogma had prepareda fresh thought occurred to her, affording a curious, paradoxical comfort.