ANSWERABLE • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Answerable

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/ˈænsərəbəl/ Listen

adjective

Answerable adj.

Obliged to answer; liable to be called to account; liable to pay, indemnify, or make good; accountable; amenable; responsible; as, an agent is answerable to his principal; to be answerable for a debt, or for damages. "Will any man argue that... he can not be justly punished, but is answerable only to God?"

Capable of being answered or refuted; admitting a satisfactory answer. "The argument, though subtle, is yet answerable."

Correspondent; conformable; hence, comparable. "What wit and policy of man is answerable to their discreet and orderly course?" "This revelation... was answerable to that of the apostle to the Thessalonians."

Proportionate; commensurate; suitable; as, an achievement answerable to the preparation for it.

Equal; equivalent; adequate. (Archaic) "Had the valor of his soldiers been answerable, he had reached that year, as was thought, the utmost bounds of Britain."

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Etymology of 'Answerable'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Answerable" Quotes from Famous Books

... the girl to be a perfectly reputable and virtuous young person. But her father has not only left her in poverty, he has done worse—he has died in debt. Besides this, her mother's character does not stand high in the town. It is said, among other things, that her extravagance is mainly answerable for her late husband's debts. Under these circumstances, I wish to break off the connection while the two young people are separated for the time by the event of the doctor's recent death. Fritz has given ...

— Jezebel • Wilkie Collins

... of this year, the English began to find their success answerable to their cause. A fleet and an army were sent to America to dislodge the enemies from the settlements which they had so perfidiously made, and so insolently maintained, and to repress that power which was growing more every ...

— The Works of Samuel Johnson in Nine Volumes - Volume IV: The Adventurer; The Idler • Samuel Johnson

... Lanfert was a stout and lusty carpenter, who the other day had brought into his yard a great oak, which, as their manner is, he began to cleave, and had struck into it two wedges in such wise that the cleft stood a great way open, at which the fox rejoiced much, for it was answerable to his wish. So with a laughing countenance he said to the bear, "Behold now, dear uncle, and be careful of yourself, for within this tree is so much honey that it is unmeasurable. Try if you can get into it; yet, good uncle, eat moderately, for albeit the combs are ...

— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry

... strong speech to the same effect. "Make your officer responsible," he said with prophetic vision, "and the presumption is, that plans and information are properly digested; but if he can secrete himself behind the curtain, he might create a noxious influence, and not be answerable for the ...

— Washington and His Colleagues • Henry Jones Ford

... Oxford I should be called upon to commence a sort of establishment upon the splendid English scale; here I should share in many duties and responsibilities, and should become henceforth an object of notice to a large society. Now first becoming separately and individually answerable for my conduct, and no longer absorbed into the general unit of a family, I felt myself, for the first time, burthened with the anxieties of a man, and a ...

— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

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