union_ except for a specified
time and purpose. _League_ and _alliance_ are used with scarcely
perceptible difference of meaning. In a _confederacy_ or _confederation_
there is an attempt to unite separate states in a general government
without surrender of sovereignty. _Union_ implies so much concession as
to make the separate states substantially one. _Federation_ is mainly a
poetic and rhetorical word expressing something of the same thought, as
in Tennyson's "_federation_ of the world," _Locksley Hall_, l. 128. The
United States is not a _confederacy_ nor an _alliance_; the nation might
be called a _federation_, but prefers to be styled a federal _union_.

Antonyms:

antagonism, disunion, enmity, schism, separation,
discord, divorce, hostility, secession, war.

Prepositions:

Alliance _with_ a neighboring people; _against_ the common enemy; _for_
offense and defense; alliance _of_, _between_, or _among_ nations.

* * * * *

ALLOT.

Synonyms:

appoint, destine, give, portion out,
apportion, distribute, grant, select,
assign, divide, mete out, set apart.
award,

_Allot_, originally to assign by lot, applies to the giving of a
definite thing to a certain person. A portion or extent of time is
_allotted_; as, I expect to live out my _allotted_ time. A definite
period is _appointed_; as, the audience assembled at the _appointed_
hour. _Allot_ may also refer to space; as, to _allot_ a plot of ground
for a cemetery; but we now oftener use _select_, _set apart_, or
_assign_. _Allot_ is not now used of persons. _Appoint_ may be used of
time, space, or person; as, the _appointed_ day; the _appointed_ place;
an officer was _appointed_ to this station. _Destine_ may also refer to
time, place, or person, but it always has reference to what is
considerably in the future; a man _appoints_ to meet his friend in five
minutes; he _destines_ his son to follow his own profession. _Assign_ is
rarely used of time, but rather of places, persons, or things. We
_assign_ a work to be done and _assign_ a man to do it, who, if he
fails, must _assign_ a reason for not doing it. That which is
_allotted_, _appointed_, or _assigned_ is more or less arbitrary; that
which is _awarded_ is the due requital of something the receiver has
done, and he has right and claim to it; as, the medal was _awarded_ for
valor. Compare APPORTION.

Antonyms: