permit

Formspermits, permitting, permitted

Pluralpermits, permit

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To allow something to take place, or to give one's consent to it.

   The city council voted to permit outdoor dining on weekends.

   Safety regulations do not permit open flames inside the building.

   Similarallow, authorize, sanction, approve, tolerate

   Oppositeforbid, prohibit, ban, bar

   Note

   The core sense, and the one the Latin explains best: permittere joined per, "through", with mittere, "send", so to permit was to let something pass. The object is the thing allowed, such as ordination or a road left in disgraceful condition, and the verb is often negated: a church "will not permit" it. When a person and a to-infinitive follow, the verb shifts to letting someone act.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To give a person permission, or the right, to do something.

   The committee agreed to permit students to retake the exam.

   Hospital policy permits relatives to visit twice a day.

   Similarallow, authorize, enable

   Oppositeforbid, prohibit, bar

3. 3
   nouncountable

   An official document or item that makes an activity allowed or legal.

   Contractors must display a valid building permit at the work site.

   The agency revoked several permits after the inspection.

   Similarlicense, authorization, pass, warrant

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To approve something through an official act or decision.

   The zoning office agreed to permit construction on the lot.

   Regulators permitted the bank to expand its services.

   Similarauthorize, approve, license, sanction

   Oppositeprohibit, ban

   Note

   The bureaucrat's verb, and the one that changes how the word is said. It is stressed on the first syllable like the noun, not per-MIT. A building department permits a project, and federal agencies "site and permit transmission lines," as Jesse Jenkins puts it to Ezra Klein in 2022. The authority is the subject, and the project or structure is the object. The related -ing form gives the phrase "permitting authority."

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To allow for something; to make something possible.

   We can extend the deadline, if circumstances permit.

   The committee will meet outdoors, weather permitting.

   Similarallow

   Note

   Without an object, the verb turns into a word for conditions: if time permits, if circumstances permit, and the fixed absolute phrase weather permitting, which trails a sentence as a hedge, as in "a barbie on the terrace, weather permitting." The subject is a circumstance rather than a person, and the clause usually qualifies a plan rather than granting anything.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A provisional document allowing a new driver to practice operating a vehicle, usually under supervision, before obtaining a full license.

   He earned his permit at sixteen and started practicing in empty parking lots.

   State law requires teens to hold a permit for six months before the road test.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   To allow for something as a possibility; to admit of it.

   The contract's language permits of no ambiguity.

   The facts permit of only one conclusion.

   Similaradmit, allow

   Note

   A construction with of, usually framed as a limit: troubles too many "to permit of our being light-hearted," a policy that "does not permit of minor doubts." Saki has it in 1910 and Ian Jack in 2007. The subject is a situation, not a person, and a noun or an -ing form follows of. Without of, the meaning slides toward the "make possible" use.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To obtain, or attempt to obtain, formal authorization for something.

   The team needs to permit the project before breaking ground.

   They permitted the new plant in record time.

   Note

   It has the same first-syllable stress as the authority's verb, but the direction flips: here the developer does the permitting. "We've been busy permitting the State Street development" means filing and chasing approvals, not granting them. The object is still the project, so only context shows which side of the counter the speaker stands on.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A large silver-bodied pompano (Trachinotus falcatus) found in warm Atlantic coastal waters and prized as a game fish.

   The guide poled the skiff toward a permit tailing on the flat.

   Permits feed on crabs and small crustaceans along shallow reefs.

   Note

   A different word that happens to share the spelling. The fish name is an irregular borrowing of Spanish palometa, probably traced back to a Greek word, pēlamús, for a young tuna. It has nothing to do with the Latin "send through," so an angler's permit tailing on a flat is the fish, never a license to fish.

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