also 6 apporcion, 7 aportion. [a. OF. apportionner, -cionner, f. à to + portionner, f. portion portion, share.]
1. To assign (to any one) as his proper portion or share; to allot.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xv. 241. Euery certeine Soule must needes be apportioned and appointed to some one certeine body.
1660. Jer. Taylor, Worthy Commun., i. § 1 (1667), 12. What reward God please to apportion to it.
1824–8. Landor, Imag. Conv. (1846), 52. The first duty of a legislator is to apportion penalties.
1870. Disraeli, Lothair, vii. 25. His guardians had apportioned to him an allowance … adequate to his position.
2. To assign in proper portions or shares; to divide and assign proportionally; to portion out, to share.
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 46 a. The rent service … shalbee apporcioned after the value of the land.
1703. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1709), 111. The Matter in competition is often Indivisible. An Office, or a Mistress, can’t be Apportion’d out like a Common.
1778. G. Morris, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), II. 131. A contribution … to be apportioned upon the inhabitants, according to their wealth.
1848. Mill, Pol. Econ., III. xvi. § 1. To apportion the expenses of production between the two.
3. To adjust according to due proportion or measure; to proportion. arch.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 43. The number wee cannot better aportion, then from the nature and definition of a Principle.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. 245. This seems apportioned to animal wants.
1823. Lamb, Elia, I. xviii. (1865), 136. It was the measure for the birds to apportion their silver warblings by.
