Also 5–6 allegacioun, alegacion, adlegacyon. [a. Fr, allégation, ad. L. adl-, allēgātiōn-em, n. of action f. allēgā-re: see ALLEGATE v. Sometimes spelt adl- in 5–6.]
The action of alleging; the matter alleged.
1. The action of making a charge before a legal tribunal; the charge or matter undertaken to be proved.
1483. Caxton, Cato, A vij. After alle allegacions and compleyntes made of bothe partes. Ibid. (1490), Eneydos, xxix. 113. An aunswere to the adlegacyons of Proserpyne.
1494. Fabyan, VII. ccxxi. 243. Whan Thomas had harde all the alegacions, he denyed all.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., III. i. 181. To sweare False allegations to o’rethrow his state.
1772. Hist. Rochester, 128. Their allegations against their Spiritual governor were groundless.
1823. Lingard, Hist. Eng., VI. 202. The king’s counsel laboured to prove three allegations.
1862. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., xix. § 6. 356. An officer of the court takes the allegation, the libel, or the interrogatories.
† 2. A statement made in excuse; a plea; the alleging of a reason. Obs.
c. 1510. More, Picus, Wks. 1557, 27. Saye not thou lackest myght, Suche allegacions foly it is to vse.
1589. Bp. Cooper, Admon., 115. That the people … did euer use such allegations for their owne excuse.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 431. This allegation of ‘raggione del stato’ did serue as well to uphold, as … to bring in this vile Idolatry.
1622. R. Hawkins, Voy. S. Sea (1847), 206. In case he excuse himselfe with this allegation.
3. The action of asserting or affirming what one is prepared to prove; an assertion, affirmation, averment.
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 1557, 507/1. To proue you the foly of that allegacion.
1594. Plat, Jewell-ho., I. 19. My former allegation, that those oysters are nourished with salt.
1630. Levett, Bees (1634), 63. This allegation is true: for I have often seene a hive cast a swarme, and within foure dayes cast another.
1658. Bramhall, Consecr. Bish., xi. 10. The proofe of both these allegations.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 498, ¶ 3. I thought their allegations but reasonable.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol. (1875), I. II. xxv. 644. Nor ought we to call the allegation in question.
1869. Gladstone, Juv. Mundi, iii. 105. Without any allegation of a rigid uniformity.
4. esp. An assertion without proof, a mere assertion.
1635. R. Bolton, Affl. Consc., ii. 162. With unprofitable mixtures of human allegations.
1775. Boswell, Johnson, xxiv. 221. He also persevered in his wild allegation that he questioned if there was a tree between Edinburgh and the English border older than himself.
1856. E. Bond, Russia in 16th c. (Hakl. Soc.), Introd. 79. The specious allegation that ‘the whole country of Russia was not able to receave so much of English commodities as wear now brought.’
1870. Daily News, 25 July, 5/5. The allegation of an excited orator.
† 5. The action of citing or quoting (a document or author); the matter cited or quoted; citation, quotation. ? Obs.
1561. T. N[orton], trans. Calvin’s Inst., IV. xvi. (1634), 663. Baptisme of infants [is] proved by allegations brought to disprove it.
1628. T. Spencer, Logick, 120. The bare allegation of Aristotles words.
1671. Flavel, Fount. Life, ix. 23. Which words are an allegation out of Moses.
1673. Penn, Chr. Quaker, xv. 569. The Allegation of that Scripture against us.
¶ Also by confusion for ALLIGATION, q.v.
