avow
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to state or affirm
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to admit openly
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rare law to justify or maintain (some action taken)
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of avow
First recorded in 1200–50; Middle English avowen, from Old French avoue(r), from Latin advocāre; see advocate
Explanation
When you avow something, you say it openly for the whole world to hear. If you're a witness in a trial, you'll be asked to take an oath in which you'll avow that you'll tell the truth. A simple way to remember the meaning of avow is that it sounds and looks a whole lot like "a vow," to which it's closely related. At the end of almost every wedding, the couple takes their vows, in which they avow their commitment to each other. To take a vow is to avow the things that you say in that vow. Be sure that you mean what you say when you avow something, because people will hold you to it. And don't mutter or mumble. That's no way to avow something.
Vocabulary lists containing avow
Vocabulary from Woodrow Wilson's "Fourteen Points" (1918)
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They Called Us Enemy
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"My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Since April, Duble said, Avow canvassers have knocked on more than 2,600 doors, spurring about 200 conversations.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 22, 2022
Out of 150 state House seats, Avow chose Button’s carefully.
From Seattle Times • Oct. 22, 2022
"It's a change no one really likes," says Stan Beavers, 38, an Avow account executive.
From Time Magazine Archive
Avow and avouch take a direct object; aver is followed by a conjunction: a man avows his faith, avouches a deed, avers that he was present.
From English Synonyms and Antonyms With Notes on the Correct Use of Prepositions by Fernald, James Champlin
Avow before all persons, your attachment to principle, to your Savior, and your God.
From The Young Maiden by Muzzey, A. B. (Artemas Bowers)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
