allotment

From Old French alotement (modern French allotement).

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈlɔt.mɛnt/

• Audio (Southern England):

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• Audio (US):

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allotment (countable and uncountable, plural allotments)

1. The act of allotting.
   • 2007, Ruth Chambers, Kay Mohanna, David Wall, How to Succeed as a Leader:

     You will achieve more in designated sessions of quiet uninterrupted periods than in a longer allotment of time broken up by various activities.

   • 1873, Henry Sumner Maine, The early history of the property of married women‎^[1]:

     The allotment of particular names to special ideas which gradually disengage themselves from a general idea is apparently determined by accident.

2. Something allotted; a share, part, or portion granted or distributed
   • 1831, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Romance and Reality. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 13:

     The history attached to it could not but recur to Emily as she passed, and her heart sank within her—not with fear, but at the thought, how much of misery there was in the world; and why should she be spared amid such general allotment?

   • 1906, Thomas William Shore, chapter 9, in Origin of the Anglo-Saxon Race‎^[2]:

     Similar customs prevailed in a part of Friesland, the most notable of which was the ‘Jus Theelacticum,’ or custom of the Theel lands, doles, or allottable lands in East Friesland, not far from the mouth of the Ems. There an inherited allotment was indivisible; on the death of the father it passed intact to the youngest son, and on his death without issue it fell into the possession of the whole community

   • 1984 April 7, Warren Blumenfeld, “Boston's Other Voice”, in Gay Community News, page 8:

     Though most interviews are aired in ten-minute segments, very often they are longer than that specific time allotment.

3. (law) The allowance of a specific amount of money or other credit of a particular thing to a particular person.
   • 2013, Maxine Holsinger, The Life of Maxine Holsinger:

     Maynard used to help before he got sick, but there was no income except what I brought in my allotment.

4. (British) A plot of land rented from the council for growing fruit and vegetables.
   • 2015, Cathy Bramley, Ivy Lane:

     The fallout of this unexpected turn of events was that it was Saturday morning, the first day of the Easter holidays, before the thought of my allotment even entered my head. Goodness only knew how big my carrots were going to be by the time I got round there!