aggravate, embitter, heighten, intensify, make worse. augment, enhance, increase, magnify,
coalition, confederation, fusion, partnership, compact, federation, league, union. confederacy,
_Alliance_ is in its most common use a connection formed by treaty between sovereign states as for mutual aid in war. _Partnership_ is a mercantile word; _alliance_ chiefly political or matrimonial. _Coalition_ is oftenest used of political parties; _fusion_ is now the more common word in this sense. In an _alliance_ between nations there is no surrender of sovereignty, and no _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_.
antagonism, disunion, enmity, schism, separation, discord, divorce, hostility, secession, war.
Alliance _with_ a neighboring people; _against_ the common enemy; _for_ offense and defense; alliance _of_, _between_, or _among_ nations.
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.