answerableadj.adv.

1446 in H. Nicolas Proc. & Ordinances Privy Council (1837) VI. 115 Þat ye do cancell, adnul, and with drawe in the said appele of oure receipte al þat that by any moien is entred or writen therin that might cause the said John Poutrell to be answerable..of þe said juelx.

?1530 J. Rastell Pastyme of People sig. A.iiii When his yerys was past and he dyschargyd of his auctoryte he shuld be than answerable to all byllis & complayntis that any of the people coud alegge agayn hym.

1562–3 Act 5 Elizabeth I c. 29 in Statutes of Realm (1963) IV. i. 459 Everie Parsone Vicar or other Spirituall or Temporall Parson..hyring anny Preist or Minister to serve in anny place, shalbe answerable for the payment of the saide Preiste or Minister in that Bihalfe.

1598–9 in W. Fraser Memorials Montgomeries (1859) II. 242 Ansuerable..for sic personis.

1651 Bp. J. Taylor XXVIII Serm. Ep. Ded. sig. *^v He is highly answerable for his talent.

1699 R. Bentley Diss. Epist. Phalaris (new ed.) 378 Mr. B...at least is answerable for the Language of his Book.

1722 D. Defoe Moll Flanders 204 She would be answerable for her upon all Accounts.

1768 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. II. 459 The ship and tackle..are answerable (as well as the person of the borrower) for the money lent.

1790 Town & Country Mag. Feb. 81/1 This Moor being a person of great weight and consideration, desired the guard to carry him to his house, and he would be answerable for him when the state should demand him.

1813 Amer. Law Jrnl. 4 142 The expressions above refered [sic] to were inserted to hold up the idea that the administrators were not meant to be considered answerable to their own rights.

1863 F. A. Kemble Jrnl. Resid. Georgian Plantation 24 Slavery is answerable for all the evils.

1897 J. Booth Afr. for African (2007) 51 The British Crown, we must hope, is not answerable of this company's treatment of the natives of the country.

1933 A. L. Burt Old Province Quebec (1968) I. ii. 16 All their effects, cattle, sheep, and corn, were to be lodged with this local official, who was to be answerable for them until the troops returned on their upward journey.

1972 National Assembly Official Rep. (Republic of Kenya) 28 1503 A decision of such a court should not be subjected to any other court outside Parliament which is responsible and answerable for the public funds in this country.

2009 Daily Tel. 26 Feb. 31/2 Members were made answerable for every aspect of their lives—from sexual relationships to shopping decisions.

1527 Statutes Prohemium Iohannis Rastell (new ed.) f. ccxliiii The seysyn shalbe delyuered to the nexte frende to whom the herytage can not dissend to be answerable to the childe at his ful age.

1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Heb. in Paraphr. New Test. xii. (R.) You must nedes be answerable vnto your hie prieste and his lawe.

1640 in J. Nicholson Minute Bk. War Comm. Covenanters Kirkcudbright 3 Nov. (1855) 75 The Committie ordaines Barquhillantie..to be answerable to the Commissar Depute.

1747 R. Campbell London Tradesman xxxvii. 201 They are answerable to their Employers if any Damage happens to the Goods through their Ignorance or Neglect.

1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 239 I imagined I should be answerable to myself for every accident that might befal them.

1834 H. Binney Speech on Removal of Deposites 24 For abuse of that discretion, if answerable to any thing but the law, he is answerable to the head of that department to which the particular duty appertains.

1869 E. A. Freeman Hist. Norman Conquest III. xiii. 277 For the good administration of which the magistrate..was answerable to the power which appointed him.

1922 F. A. Ogg & P. O. Ray Introd. Amer. Governm. xxi. 292 They are answerable to him for all that they do in their official capacity.

1960 New Scientist 1 Sept. 573/2 Its manager, its sales manager and technical manager are expected to conduct the whole business of the division themselves, being answerable only to Bagrit as managing director of the group.

2008 N.Y. Times Mag. 4 May 55/2 A gang structure that is no longer top-down but is instead made up of many small groups..whose members are answerable to a handful of peers.

1534 G. Ferrers tr. Bk. Magna Carta f. 102 If the robborye chaunce to be done in the diuysion of two hundredes, in suche case bothe hundredes and also the fraunchyses whiche be within the precynctes of them shall be aunswerable.

1598 W. Shakespeare Henry IV, Pt. 1 ii. v. 528 If he haue robd these men He shal be answerable . View more context for this quotation

1601 F. Tate Househ. Ord. Edward II (1876) §12. 12 He shalbe aunswerable if any peril happen.

a1677 T. Manton 190 Serm. on 119th Psalm (1845) III. clxxii. 340 As their patronus, he owneth the cause, taketh it upon himself, as the answerable party, and then useth his judicial power in defence of his people.

1704 Duke of Marlborough Let. 25 Aug. in H. L. Snyder Marlborough–Godolphin Corr. (1975) I. 357 For this last action, I will be answerable his friend the King of France will own the victory.

1781 T. Pickering in J. Sparks Corr. Amer. Revol. (1853) III. 419 He was answerable with his head, if the King's army were not duly supplied.

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth iv, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. 105 I will be answerable that this galliard meant but some Saint Valentine's jest.

c1881 W. B. Mulock in Rep. Curator Anc. Monuments India (1882) App. p. clv In my opinion a cactus hedge should be planted round this also, as I suggested for Ambemath, and the patel should be answerable that no further injury is done.

1921 A. B. Walkley Pastiche & Prejudice (1970) 28 Come..if you'll let me negotiate for you, I will be answerable that all shall go well.

1969 ABA Jrnl. Sept. 879/2 The court announced that the present trend of the law is to hold that a corporation is answerable when ‘it introduces its product into the stream of interstate commerce if it had reason to know or expect that its product would be brought into the state where the injury occurred’.

2001 F. M. Barnard Democratic Legitimacy iv. 70 A democratically elected and democratically answerable body itself..determines what is or is not done in the name of the people at large.

1534 N. Udall Floures for Latine Spekynge gathered oute of Terence f. 134 Whan the dedes are answerable and agreing vnto the wordes and sayinges or promyses.

1574 G. Baker tr. Composition Oleum Magistrale sig. Biii^v Which woork..although [not] answerable to your honours oppinion and expectation of me.

1580 J. Lyly Euphues & his Eng. (new ed.) f. 15 If the courtesie of England be aunswerable to the custome of Pilgrimes.

1638 W. Chillingworth Relig. Protestants i. i. §1. 30 I feare your proceedings will be answerable to these beginnings!

a1684 R. Leighton Pract. Comm. 1st Epist. Peter in Expository Wks. (1798) I. 82 In its nature, answerable to its original, it is immaterial, spiritual and pure.

1718 Free-thinker No. 80. 2 Some young Princess, whose Birth is answerable to your own.

1754 Capt. Cope New Hist. East-Indies xxiii. 367 Had my Lord Falcon..had Courage answerable to his other good Qualities, he had certainly been honoured with the Diadem in Siam.

1824 S. Reeve Stanmore II. i. 11 The spirit of his retorts the preceding evening they thought gave the promise of a gallantry of character answerable to that of his father.

1869 A. Morris Open Secret i. 13 The themes..are..too momentous to be introduced into common..talk in a manner answerable to their sacredness.

1931 C. Day Lewis From Feathers to Iron xxiii. 45 Such is not answerable to mind, Is random as a flake Blindly down-dancing here.

1989 S. Plumpp Blues 101 The pine topped vision of women answerable to hills on redclay.

2005 A. Savile Kant's Critique Pure Reason vii. 126 Those things we must say are situated in a space and a time to which we all have access, but whose nature is in no way answerable to the structure of our sensibility-dependent minds.

1590 Sir P. Sidney Covntesse of Pembrokes Arcadia i. xvi. f. 71 A likenesse..aunswerable enough in some feitures, & colors, but erring in others.

1612 T. Taylor Αρχὴν Ἁπάντων: Comm. Epist. Paul to Titus (ii. 12) 467 The Gospel bringeth saluation, but looketh for an answerable returne.

1673 W. Cave Primitive Christianity ii. i. 4 Humility—a mean estimation of ourselves and an answerable Carriage towards others.

1775 J. Adair Hist. Amer. Indians 90 If the seasons have been answerable..the old women pay their reputed prophet.

1827 J. C. Hare & A. W. Hare Guesses at Truth I. 233 For the great difficulty as soon as one has begun to make excursions into the higher regions of thought, is, to discover anything like answerable realities, to atone our ideas with our perceptions.

1878 R. L. Stevenson Inland Voy. 216 The look of these slim figures, all corseted and ribboned, produced an answerable disturbance in our hearts.

1908 Jrnl. Trop. Med. & Hygiene 1 296/2 Bastianelli reports an answerable observation.

a1952 A. W. Pink Holy Spirit (2002) xxvii. 154 The law and the gospel display various aspects of ‘the glory of the Lord’, that is, of God Himself, and as anointed eyes behold the same, the soul is irradiated thereby and an answerable change is wrought in it.

2003 M. Suzuki Subordinate Subj. i. 40 The fantasy of social harmony between Jack and his workers finds its answerable literary form in the comedic marriages that punctuate and conclude the text.

1542 N. Udall tr. Erasmus Apophthegmes ii. f. 291 A stoute courage and a veraye mannes herte, if fourtune had been aunswerable in dooyng hir parte.

1571 T. Digges in L. Digges's Geom. Pract.: Pantometria xxiv. sig. E eiij Ye shall there in his answerable Chapiter, receiue rules for the inuention of his capacitie superficiall.

1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits viii. 102 If hee who hath anie answerable nature, giue himselfe to make verses.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost ix, in Poet. Wks. (1720) I. 344 If answerable style I can obtain Of my Celestial Patroness.

1691 A. Wood Athenæ Oxonienses II. 740 Attended with an answerable train, in rich Liveries.

1724 D. Waterland Crit. Hist. Athanasian Creed Introd. 2 Provided only that the Performance be answerable, and that it fall not short of its Principal Aim.

1756 E. Burke Vindic. Nat. Society 57 His Reception was answerable.

1828 T. Carlyle Goethe in Foreign Rev. 2 125 Certain objections against Goethe..we reckon..the most answerable things in the world.

1957 J. Bayley in M. O'Neill & M. Callaghan 20th-cent. Brit. & Irish Poetry (2011) iv. 142 In the 1940s he wrote some of his finest poetry in response to the horrors of the Blitz, producing work that finds an answerable speech for the fiery terrors that fell from the sky over wartime London.

2010 D. Wyatt Secret Hist. vi. 87 The task of the artist or the Southern citizen is to provide an answerable version of the past while acknowledging its essential indeterminacy.

1549 W. Baldwin Canticles of Salomon Ep. Ded. sig. A.ii He willeth that mete thinges be not vnmetely geuen, as armoure to women, nettes to studentes, nor bokes to plowmen, but that all giftes be helpfull, or at leastwise aunswerable to his trade of lyfe and estate.

1576 F. Thynne Let. 13 Mar. in Animaduersions (1875) p. liv Thee performance whereof shall..bee..answerable vnto your callinge, & profitable vnto mee.

1582 S. Batman Vppon Bartholome, De Proprietatibus Rerum To Rdr. sig. B The same that was formally written of, with additions aunswerable to time present.

1630 R. Norton tr. W. Camden Hist. Princesse Elizabeth ii. 91 A guard answerable to his royal dignity.

1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 907 A death answerable to his life.

1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison II. xxxii. 311 Her treatment..was not answerable to her merits.

1798 T. Jones Memoirs (1951) 49 [Modena] seemed the handsomest City we had yet seen... Went to the Post House a well built house Answerable to the Other Buildings.

1828 Monthly Relig. Mag. Oct. 381/1 There can..be no doubt of the success of the undertaking, if it be conducted throughout in a manner answerable to its importance, and adapted to the taste of the age.

1877 Canad. Jrnl. Sci., Lit. & Hist. 15 600 But we must believe that man in the future, as in the past, will continue to develop contrivances answerable to his needs.

1907 E. V. Lucas Swan & Friends v. 81 I inquired your character. It was answerable to my wishes.

1960 F. P. Wilson 17th Cent. Prose iv. 85 The danger with a man like Browne, no very clear or profound thinker yet with a style so elaborate, is when the matter is not answerable to the style.

2006 J. Shotter in Y. Haila & C. Dyke How Nature Speaks 115 Only if we address them appropriately, in a way answerable to their nature, do they answer to our inquiries.

1551 T. Wilson Rule of Reason Ep. Ded. sig. A.ii If my power & habilite were answerable to my good wil..this token of mine humble duetie..shoulde be as great & preciouse, as by reason of the contrarie, it is base and slender.

1578 J. Banister Hist. Man sig. Cii^v The hollowes that receiue them, must of necessitie also be diuers and different, euer answerable to their proportions.

1594 T. Blundeville Exercises i. xii. f. 17 One whole Integrum, which being added to 2344. will be aunswerable to the second number of the question.

1617 J. Taylor Three Weekes Obseruations sig. C His post-like legges were answerable to the rest of the great frame which they supported.

1693 J. Evelyn tr. J. de La Quintinie Reflect. Agric. xxi. 78 in Compl. Gard'ner With a thickness answerable to their height.

1747 T. Carte Gen. Hist. Eng. I. v. 472 There had been a strangeness between them on account of the former's not contributing to the latter's expences in Normandie, by a benevolence answerable to the revenue of his fee.

1769 J. Reynolds Disc. Royal Acad., 11 Dec. 1769 1 Render your future progress answerable to your past improvement.

1801 Marquess Wellesley Let. 10 May in Select. Despatches (1877) 613 The revenue of that Island will [not] be found answerable to its necessary expenditure.

1845 Encycl. Metrop. XV. 815/2 A plan to get a street opened in a direct line of fifty-one feet broad from the Bridge to the castle, answerable to the breadth of the Bridge.

1892 ‘M. Twain’ Amer. Claimant (1899) ii. 23 Certainly something august enough to be answerable to the size of this unique and memorable experience was my due.

1953 M. Traynor Eng. Dial. Donegal 6 This side (of a casing, board) is not answerable to the other.

1987 in D. Baker-Smith & C. C. Barfoot Between Dream & Nature 84 All proportions on the moon were answerable to the surprising height of its inhabitants.

1567 Proclam. Very Rich Lotterie Generall The same..shall haue for the same posies or deuises, so comming together one after another, Three pounds sterling, ouer and besydes the price answerable therfore.

1571 R. Cavendish Image Nature i. f. 14 The Serpent..lyeth in hys shrowde so weake, that he may be touched without daunger of hys bityng, which happeneth by want of strength..: for so soone as aunswerable tyme furnisheth hym of strengthe, hee bewrayeth the same.

1578 G. Best Three Voy. M. Frobisher (1867) 134 Like to a porpose, being about twelve foote long, and in bignesse answerable.

1604 C. Edmondes Observ. Cæsars Comm. II. vi. ii. 7 Eminent and extraordinarie attempts..are thought worthie their answerable rewards.

1645 S. Rutherford Tryal & Triumph of Faith Ep. Ded. sig. A3 An answerable number of men and Angels.

a1716 R. South 12 Serm. (1717) VI. 400 But their Success was answerable.

1834 Mil. & Naval Mag. U.S. Sept. 26 We found ourselves suddenly in an expanded haven, where seventy-fours might have found elbow-room, provided the soundings were of an answerable depth.

1865 E. Robinson Dorothy Firebrace I. xxxii. 316 Tubal Bromycham's example and strenuous personal activity carried forward the executive part of this work at an answerable rate.

1869 Museum 1 Mar. 453/2 Instead of having extracted any answerable amount of the rich ore contained in the mines of Greek and Latin literature, he has, at the best, been exercising in the barren palæstra of critical accuracy.

1908 W. H. Low Chron. Friendships xxix. 356 In the same spot he can be supplied with inferior vittles to the tune of ditto, or say one pound (or the answerable proportion of dollars, francs, thalers, roubles, asses, lire, zwanzwigers, moidores, etc.) a week.