afford.
To incur, stand, or bear without serious detriment, as an act which might under other circumstances be injurious; (usually after an expression of ability, as could, able, difficult) to be able or rich enough; to spare.
Meaning & usage
To incur, stand, or bear without serious detriment, as an act which might under other circumstances be injurious; (usually after an expression of ability, as could, able, difficult) to be able or rich enough; to spare.
I think we can afford the extra hour it will take. We can only afford to buy a small car at the moment.
To offer, provide, or supply, as in selling, granting or expending, with profit, or without too great a loss.
Alfred affords his goods cheaper than Bantock.
To give forth; to supply, yield, or produce as the natural result, fruit, or issue.
Grapes afford wine. Olives afford oil. The earth affords fruit. The sea affords an abundant supply of fish.
To give, grant, or confer, with a remoter reference to its being the natural result; to provide; to furnish.
A good life affords consolation in old age.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English afforthen, aforthen, avorthien, from earlier iforthen, iforthien, ȝeforthien, from Old English forþian, ġeforþian (“to further, accomplish, afford”), from Proto-Germanic *furþōną, from Proto-Germanic *furþą (“forth, forward”), equivalent to a- + forth. Cognate with Old Norse forða (“to forward oneself, save oneself, escape danger”), Icelandic forða (“to save, rescue”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.