| 释义 |
supportable, a.|səˈpɔətəb(ə)l|
[ad. L. *supportābilis, f. supportāre to support: see -able. Cf. F. supportable.]
I. In active sense.
†1. Affording support or assistance. Obs. rare.
1533Bellenden Livy i. viii. (S.T.S.) I. 49 Þe favoure of goddis apperit to þame sa supportabill and helplie in all thare besines.
II. In passive sense.
2. Bearable, tolerable, endurable.
a1577Sir T. Smith Commw. Eng. iii. iv. (1584) 96 This thing seemed not supportable to the noble prince King Henrie the eight. 1610Shakes. Temp. v. i. 145 Supportable To make the deere losse, haue I meanes much weaker Then you may call to comfort you. 1637Bastwick Litany ii. 18 It is a prodigious wickednes..and a thing not supportable to compare the Creator of all things to the creature. a1691Boyle Hist. Air (1692) 158 The steams of their carcases would make the air so stinking and offensive, that it was scarce supportable. 1711Addison Spect. No. 169 ⁋3 Good⁓nature.. makes even Folly and Impertinence supportable. 1784Cowper Task v. 604 The loss of all That can..make frail life, Short as it is, supportable. 1810Vince Astron. xxi. 228 It grew very faint, and was easily supportable to the naked eye. 1894Stevenson & Osbourne Ebb Tide i. i, The thought of death is always the least supportable when it draws near to the merely sensual and selfish.
b. Capable of being successfully resisted.
1711in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 157 Their..assault with such numbers not being supportable.
3. Capable of being maintained, confirmed, or made good; defensible.
1631J. Burges Answ. Rejoined 54 Some reason supportable by the word of God. 1793Washington Lett. Writ. 1891 XII. 290 To take fair and supportable ground I conceive to be our best policy. 1812J. J. Henry Camp. agst. Quebec 173 These ideas are..supportable by the authority of some of the best physicians. 1885Law Times Rep. LIII. 481/1 Bills containing charges which might not be supportable on taxation.
4. In physical sense: Capable of being held up or sustained. rare.
1832–4De Quincey Cæsars Wks. 1859 X. 88 Obliged to cover..each space upon which they trode with parts of their dress, in order to gain any supportable footing.
Hence supportaˈbility, suˈpportableness, the quality or condition of being supportable; suˈpportably adv., in a supportable manner, endurably.
a1660Hammond Serm. Matt. xi. 30 Wks. 1684 IV. 477 The supportableness of the burthen. 1846Worcester, Supportably. 1867Carlyle Remin. (1881) II. ii. 239 My new illustrious ‘study’ was definable as the least inhabitable..bit of human workmanship in that kind... But, by many and long-continued efforts..I did get it patched together into something of supportability. |