allegation 
Eeprove my allegation if you can, 
Or else conclude my words effectual. 
Shale., 2 Hen. VI., iii. 1. 
I expect not to be excused ... on account of youth, 
want of leisure, or any other idle allegation*. Pope. 
3. In law : (a) The assertion or statement of a 
party to a suit or other proceeding, civil or 
criminal, which he undertakes to prove. (6) 
The plaintiff's first pleading in a testamentary 
cause, (c) In eccles. suits, any pleading subse- 
quent to the first Defensive allegation, in Eng. 
land, the mode of propounding circumstances of defense 
by a defendant in the spiritual courts. The defendant is en- 
titled to the plaintiff's answer upon oath to his allegation, 
and ma ' 
allege 
"'/''/'".'/ I I ,.1 I I _* 1 1 I I " I . I . . .11-'' <!"<</<, "IKtllfl, 
alleadge, < ME. aleggen, altgen, < AF. alegcr, 
alegier, aligier (< Law L. adlegiare), in form = 
OF. esligier (< ML. *exliti<jare, clear at law, < L. 
ex, out, + litif/are, sue at law: see litigate), but 
in sense taken as = OF. alleguer, F. alUguer (a 
restored form for earlier OF. aider, alaier, de- 
clare on oath, > ME. alcye, alleys, alaye: see 
allay 9 ) = Sp. alegar = Pr. Pg. allegar = It. al- 
legare, < L. allegarc, adlegare, send, depute, 
relate, mention, adduce, < ad, to, + legare, send: 
see legate.'] 1. To declare before a court; 
plead at law ; hence, in general, to produce as 
an argument, plea, or excuse ; cite or quote in 
confirmation: as, to allege exculpatory facts; 
to allege the authority of a court. 
He [Thrasymachus], amongst other arts which he alleges 
in evidence of his views, cites that of government. 
De Quincey, Plato. 
2. To pronounce with positiveness ; declare; 
affirm ; assert : as, to allege a fact. 
In many alleged cases, indeed, of haunted houses and 
the like, a detailed revelation of names and places might 
expose the narrator to legal action. 
//. A . Oxenham, Short Studies, p. 73. 
=Syn. 1. Addiue, Allege, Atsign, etc. (see adduce), bring 
forward, aver, asseverate, maintain, say, insist, plead, pro- 
duce, cite. 
allege'- 3 !, ' ' [Early mod. E. also alledge, alege, 
< ME. aleggen, ulegen,< OF. alleger, aleger, alegier 
= Pr. aleujar = It. alleggiare, < LL. alleviare, 
lighten, alleviate : see alleviate and alleve, Cf . 
abridge, abbreviate. The sense and the ME. 
forms mixed with those of allay 1 .] To alle- 
viate; lighten; mitigate; allay. 
allegeable (a-lej'a-bl), a. [(allege 1 + -able.] 
Capable of being alleged or affirmed. 
allegeance't, . [Early mod. E. also alledge- 
ance, allegeaunce, < ME. allegiaunce, < allegen, 
alegen, cite, assert : see allege 1 and -ance.] The 
act of alleging ; allegation. 
allegeance-t, [ME., also allegiance, alege- 
aunce, < OF. alegeance, mod. alltgeance, allevia- 
tion, < aleger, alleviate : see allege"* and -ance.] 
Alleviation. 
allegeance s t, . An old spelling of allegiance. 
allegementt (a-lej'ment), . [< allege 1 + -went.] 
Assertion ; allegation. 
alleger (a-lej'er), n. One who alleges. 
Alleghany vine. Same as Adlumia cirrhosa. 
allegiance (a-le'jans), . [Early mod. E. also 
allegeancc, alleageancc, etc., < ME. alegeaunee, < 
a- (prefixed appar. by confusion v/ithallegeance^, 
q. v.) + legeaunce, < OF. ligance, ligeance = 
Pr. ligansa, < ML. ligiantia, also ligantia (as if 
connected with L. ligare, ppr. ligan(t-)s, bind), 
< ligius, OF. lige, liege, > ME. liege, lege, E. liege, 
q. v. The mod. F. allegeance in this sense is 
from the E. word.] 1. The tie or obligation of 
a subject or citizen to his sovereign or govern- 
ment ; the duty of fidelity to a king, government, 
or state. Every citizen owes allegiance to the government 
under which he is born. Natural or implied allegiance is 
that obligation which one owes to the nation of which he is 
a natural-born citizen or subject so long as he remains such, 
and it does not arise from any express promise. Exprex* 
allegiance is that obligation which proceeds from an express 
promise or oath of iidelity. Local or temporary allegiance 
is due from an alien to the government or state under or 
in which he resides. In the United States the paramount 
allegiance of a citizen has been decided to be due to the 
general government, and not to the government of the 
particular State in which he is domiciled. 
Fealty is the bond that ties any man to another to 
whom he undertakes to be faithful ; the bond is created 
by the undertaking and embodied in the oath. Homage 
is the form that binds the vassal to the lord, whose man 
he becomes, and of whom he holds the land for which he 
performs the ceremony on his knees and with his hands in 
his lord's hands. Allegiance is the duty which each man 
of the nation owes to the head of the nation, whether the 
man be a land-owner or landless, the vassal of a mesne 
lord or a lordless man ; and allegiance, is a legal duty to 
the king, the state, or the nation, whether it be embodied 
in an oath or not. But although thus distinct in origin, 
the three obligations had come in the middle ages to have, 
as regards the king, one effect. Stubbs, Const. Hist., 785. 
The conquest of the Danelaw was followed by the earli- 
est instances of those oaths of allegiance which mark the 
146 
substitution of a personal dependence on the king as lord 
for the older relation of the freeman to the king of his 
race. J. It. Green, Conq. of Eng., v. 
It being a certain position in law, that allegiance and 
protection are reciprocal, the one ceasing when the other 
is withdrawn. Je/ermn, Autobiog., p. 12. 
Hence 2. Observance of obligation in gen- 
eral ; fidelity to any person or thing ; devotion. 
That I [Bolingbroke] did pluck allegiance from men's 
hearts, 
Fond shouts and salutations from their mouths, 
Even in the presence of the crowned kin;;. 
Skat., 1 Hen. IV., tti. 2. 
Love, all the faith and all the allegiance then. 
Pope, Essay on Han, iii. 235. 
= Syn. Allegiance, Loyalty, Fealty. Allegiance is the most 
formal and official of these words; it is a matter of prin- 
ciple, and applies especially to conduct ; the oath of alle- 
giance covers conduct only. Loyalty is a matter of both 
principle and sentiment, conduct and feeling ; it implies 
enthusiasm and devotion, and hence is most frequently 
chosen for figurative uses : as, loyalty to a lover, husband, 
family, clan, friends, old traditions, religion. Neither alle- 
giance nor loyalty is confined to its original meaning of the 
obligation due from a subject to a prince. Fealty has 
escaped less completely from this earliest sense, but has 
a permissible use in the sense of fidelity under obligation 
of various kinds. 
Our people quarrel with obedience ; 
Swearing allegiance, and the love of soul, 
To stranger blood, to foreign royalty. 
Shak., K. John, v. 1. 
A man who could command the unswerving loyalty of 
honest and impulsive Dick Steele could not have been a 
coward or a backbiter. Lotpell, Study Windows, p. 429. 
Nor did he doubt her more, 
But rested in her/iftt/, till he crown'd 
A happy life with a fair death. Tennyson, Geraint. 
allegiant (a-le'jant), a. and n. [Assumed 
from allegiance, after analogy of adjectives in 
-ant having associated nouns in -ance : see -ant 1 
and -ance.] I. a. Loyal. 
For your great graces 
Heaped upon me, poor undeserver, I 
Can nothing render but allegiant thanks. 
Shak., Hen. VIII., Hi. 2. 
H. n. One who owes or renders allegiance; 
a native. 
Strangers shall have the same personal rights as the al- 
leyiantt. N. A. Rev., CXIII. 125. 
allegoric (al-e-gor'ik), a. Same as allegorical. 
allegorical (al-e-gor'i-kal), a. [< L. allegoricus 
(< Gr. a/.).J!jopu(6c, < dMt/yopia, allegory : see al- 
legory) + -a?.] Consisting of or pertaining to 
allegory ; of the nature of allegory ; figurative ; 
describing by resemblances. 
His strong allegorical bent . . . was heightened by 
analysis of the Arthurian legends. 
Stedinan, Viet. Poets, p. 176. 
Allegorical interpretation, the drawing of a spiritual 
or figurative meaning from what is apparently historical : 
thus, St. Paul (Rom. ix. 7, 8) gives an allegorical interpre- 
tation of the history of free-born Isaac and slave-born Ish- 
mael. Allegorical pictures, pictures representing alle- 
gorical subjects. 
allegqrically (al-e-gor'i-kal-i), adv. In an al- 
legorical manner ; by way of allegory. 
allegoricalness (al-e-gpr'i-kal-nes), n. The 
quality of being allegorical. 
allegorisation, allegorise, etc. See allegoriza- 
tion, etc. 
allegorist (al'e-go-rist), n. [=F. allegoriste, < 
allegoriser, allegorize: see allegorize.] One who 
allegorizes ; a writer of allegory. 
allegorister (al'e-go-ris'ter), . [< allegorist + 
-er 1 .] An allegorist. [Rare.] 
In a lengthened allegory, the ground is often shifted ; 
the alleyorinter tires of his allegory, and at length means 
what he says, and nothing more. 
/. D'liraeli, Amen, of Lit., II. 144. 
allegorization (al'e-gor-i-za'shon), n. ^alle- 
gorize + -atioii.] The act of turning into alle- 
gory ; allegorical treatment. Also spelled alle- 
gorisation. 
allegorize (al'e-go-riz), v. ; pret. and pp. alle- 
gorized, ppr. allegorizing. [< OF. allegoriser, 
mod. F. allegoriser, < L. allegorizare, < Gr. aUij- 
> ooij), speak so as to imply something else : see 
allegory and -ize.] I. trans. 1. To turn into 
allegory; narrate in allegory; treat allegori- 
cally : as, to allegorize the history of a people. 
2. To understand in an allegorical sense ; in- 
terpret allegorically : as, when a passage in an 
author may be understood either literally or fig- 
uratively, he who gives it a figurative sense al- 
legorizes it. 
An alchemist shall . . . allegorize the scripture itself, 
and the sacred mysteries thereof, into the philosopher's 
stone. Locke. 
If we might allegorize it [the opera "Tannhauser"], we 
should say that it typified precisely that longing after Ve- 
nus, under her other name of Charts, which represents the 
relation in which modern should stand to ancient art. 
Lowell, Study Windows, p. 2-24. 
II. in trans. To use allegory: as, a man may 
allegorize to please his fancy. 
allenarly 
He allegorizeth upon the sacrifices. 
FuVce, Against Allen, p. 223. 
Also spelled allegorise. 
allegorize! (al'e-g6-ri"z6r), . One who alle- 
gon/es ; one who speaks in allegory or expounds 
allegorically. Also spelled allegoriser. 
thing under the image of another, < a;/, 
speak so as to imply something else, < a/./tofj 
other (see allo-), + ayopcimv, speak, < ayopa, a 
place of assembly, market-place : see agora. Cf. 
category.] 1. A figurative treatment of a sub- 
ject not expressly mentioned, under the guise 
of another having analogous properties or cir- 
cumstances ; usually, a sentence, discourse, or 
narrative ostensibly relating to material things 
or circumstances, but intended as an exposition 
of others of a more spiritual or recondite na- 
ture having some perceptible analogy or figura- 
tive resemblance to the former. 
The moment our discourse rises above the ground line 
of familiar facts, and is influenced by passion or exalted 
by thought, it clothes itself in images. . . . Hence, good 
writing and brilliant discourse are perpetual allegoriet. 
Emernon, Misc., p. 82. 
2. A method of speaking or writing character- 
ized by this kind of figurative treatment. 
Metaphor asserts or supposes that one thing is another, 
as " Judah is a lion's whelp " ; but allegory never affirms 
that one thing is another. 
T. II. Ilorne, Introd. to Study of Holy Script., II. 408. 
3. In painting and sculp., a figurative repre- 
sentation in which the meaning is conveyed 
symbolically. = Syn. 
1, Simile, metaphor, 
Comparison, etc. See 
riinUe. 
allegoryt (al'f-go- 
ri), r. t. To em- 
ploy allegory ; alle- 
gorize. 
I am not ignorant that 
some do allegory on this 
place. Abp. Whitgift, 
Defense, p. 571. 
allegretto (al-la- 
gret'tp), a. and n. 
[It., dim. of allegro: 
see allegro.] I. a. 
In music, quicker in 
time than andante, 
but not so quick as 
allegro. 
II. . A move- 
ment in such time. 
allegro (al-la'gro), 
a. andn. [It., brisk, 
sprightly, cheerful (= F. allegre, OF. alegre, 
> E. aleger, q. v.), < L. alacer, alacris, brisk, 
sprightly, cheerful: see alacrious and alacrity.] 
1. a. In music, brisk or rapid. 
II. . A brisk movement ; a sprightly part or 
strain, the quickest except presto. 
alleluia (al-e-16'ya), interj. Same as halleluiah. 
alleluia (al-e-lo'yU), n. 1. Same as halleluiah. 
2. [=F. alleluia= Sp. aleluyah lt. alleluja, 
< ML. alleluia : so called because it blossoms be- 
tween Easter and Whitsuntide, when psalms 
ending with halleluiah or alleluia are sung in 
the churches.] A name given in Europe to the 
wood-sorrel, Oxalis Acetosella. 
alleluiatic (al-e-16-yat'ik), a. Same as halle- 
luiatic. 
allemande (al-e-mond'), n. [F., prop. fern, of 
Allemand, German: see Almain, Atemannic.] 1. 
In music, the first movement after the prelude 
in a suite. Like the prelude, it is sometimes absent. 
It is in ^ time, a rather fast andante, and consists of two 
strains, each repeated, and generally of equal length. 
2. A German dance in f time, resembling the 
older style of waltz, and often so called. 3. A 
German national dance in lively f time. 4. 
A figure in dancing. 
Allemannic, a. and n. See Alemannic. 
allemontite (al-e-mon'tlt), n. [< Allemont or 
Allemond, a village of Isere, France, + -ite 2 .] 
A mineral of a tin-white color and metallic 
luster, containing arsenic and antimony. Also 
called arsenical antimony. 
alien 1 (al'en), n. [E. dial.; origin obscure.] 
Grass-land recently broken up (Halliwell) ; un- 
inclosed land that has been tilled and left to 
run to feed for sheep (Moor). [Prov. Eng.] 
allen 2 t, n. See allan?. 
allenarly (a-len'ar-li), adv. or a. [The recog- 
nized legal form of the more reg. allanerly, 
formerly also allaaerlie, alanerlie, < all + anerly. 
Allegory The Church. 
Cathedral of Worms. 13th century. 
The beast with four heads symbolizes 
the Four Gospels. (Viollet-le-Uuc's 
"Diet, del' An 
