avow (1), avo we, avowen

t. [Fr. avouer = to own, to confe , to approve, to ratify; avoué = an avowee, a proctor, attorney, solicitor, patron, or supporter; avouerie right to present to a benefice. The idea is that of a superior acknowledging an inferior, which connects the word, as Skinner and Wedgwood maintain, with AvOUCH (q.v.). Mahn connects it with Fr. vouer = to vow.] [Avow (2), s.] A. Ordinary Language: 1. To declare openly the sentiments one holds in the belief that, even though they may be unpopular, he can defend them; or to declare openly a deed which one has done, either in the conviction that it was a right deed, or because one is so hardened in wickedne that he is incapable of feeling shame when he justly falls under the censure of the virtuous. the orphan girl avowed the stern delight with which she had witne ed the tardy punishment of her father's murderer."-Macaulay: Hist . Eng . , ch. xi. † 2. To acknowledge, to confe , though more disposed to hide the deed than to proclaim and glory in it. "Left to myself, I must avow I strove From public shame to screen my secret love." Dryden: Sigismunda & Guiscardo , 456. 3. To take the responsibility of stating; to state, to allege, to declare. the relation of some credible person avowing it upon his own experience."-Boyle. B. Law : To admit that one distrained goods belonging to another, but alleging that he can and will justify the deed. he avows taking the distre in his own right or the right of his wife." Black stone: Comment., bk. iii., ch. 9.