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preferable, a. (n., adv.)|ˈprɛfərəb(ə)l|
[a. F. préférable (Cotgr. 1611), f. préférer: see prefer and -able. (See also preferrable.)]
A. adj.
1. Worthy to be preferred; to be chosen before or desired rather than another; more desirable.
1648[implied in preferableness]. 1666S. Parker Free & Impart. Censure (1667) 142 If Existence..be meerly upon this score preferable before Non-existence. 1708J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. ii. iii. (1737) 67 A select Number..call'd Preferable Men, who are always employ'd first after the Establish'd Men. 1751Johnson Rambler No. 177 ⁋1 A condition far preferable to the fatigue, dependance, and uncertainty of any gainful occupation. 1850Hawthorne Scarlet L. xvii. (1879) 219 Death itself,..would have been infinitely preferable. 1860Tyndall Glac. i. xxiii. 161 The cold was preferable to the smoke.
†2. Displaying preference; preferential. Obs.
1747Richardson Clarissa (1811) I. ix. 58 What preferable favour I may have for him to any other person. 1804Something Odd III. 132 Notwithstanding her preferable affection for the brandy bottle. 1811Sheridan in Moore Mem. (1825) II. 412, I shall as..cordially endeavour to..assist Mr. Benjamin Wyatt in the improving and perfecting his plan, as if it had been my own preferable selection.
3. = preference 8. attrib.
1913Act 3 & 4 Geo. V c. 20 §97 (1) Such preferable securities as existed at the date of the sequestration, and are not null or reducible.
†B. as n. in pl. Things to be preferred. Obs.
1702S. Parker tr. Cicero's De Finibus iii. 192 Unless we render both as before, Præposita, or Præcipua, Preferables; and Rejecta, Things Disagreeable. 1710tr. Werenfels's Disc. Logom. 20 The Stoicks..denying Riches to be good things, but calling them Preferables.
†C. as adv. Preferably, in preference. Obs.
1683Temple Mem. Wks. 1731 I. 420 His entering into it with me preferable to all others. 1760–72H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 45 If the reader loves amusement preferable to instruction. |