Meanings (ES + gloss)
asequir • costear • exequir • permitirse
To incur, stand, or bear without serious detriment, as an act which might under other circumstances be injurious; (usually after an expression of ability, as could, able, difficult) to be able or rich enough; to spare.
I think we can afford the extra hour it will take. We can only afford to buy a small car at the moment.
“[…] We are engaged in a great work, a treatise on our river fortifications, perhaps? But since when did army officers afford the luxury of amanuenses in this simple republic?[…]”