believableadj.

a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Psalms xcii. 5 Thi witnessingis ben maad beleeuable [L. credibilia] ful myche.

1534 tr. L. Valla Treat. Donation vnto Syluester iv. sig. K.vi The thinges were beleuable which are tolde and reherced.

1548 E. Gest Treat. againste Masse sig. Ciii Ryght true and beleveable.

1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Credible, beleeuable; to be credited or beleeued.

1624 T. Heywood Γυναικεῖον vii. 367 He that collected the Memorable Histories of these times, hath quoted an Author, in many things beleeuable, That the like hath been knowne in our later ages.

1674 M. Clifford Treat. Humane Reason 84 No Authority is obeyable or believeable in it self without farther examination.

1717 J. Ozell tr. P. Nicole Logic iii. vi. 263 Instead of denying Liar of believable, I have denied believable of Liar.

1786 G. M. A. Baretti Tolondron i. 37 His charge would have been rendered greatly more believable, had he suppressed that circumstance.

1809 Q. Rev. Aug. 42 The most shocking and least believable charges made by the Spanish discoverers against the Indians whom they extirpated, are no longer lightly to be rejected as too monstrous for belief.

1859 Ld. Tennyson Vivien in Idylls of King 133 And that he sinn'd, is not believable.

1883 D. C. Murray Hearts II. 162 His easy cynicism made him ten times more believable than any moral profession could have done.

1917 L. M. Montgomery Anne's House of Dreams xxxvii. 317 If Miss Cornelia had announced her intention of going out to the channel and drowning herself the thing might have been believable.

1944 Jrnl. Marketing 9 128/2 Believable claims are not necessarily more memorable than incredible claims.

1974 New York 16 Dec. 96/2 Some of this is less than believable—like the prison authorities' permitting such an inflammatory performance; some of it is all too shockingly believable.

2009 K. Norman-Bellamy Lyon's Den 24 The thought of his gun-toting, smack-talking sister made Stuart laugh too. ‘I don't know, man. I mean, she puts up a believable front.’

1892 Birmingham Daily Post 19 Apr. 3/1 Cousin John, a successful barrister, a high-minded honourable man, who, like St. Paul, ‘had his fancies’, is a far more believable character.

1929 N.Y. Times 10 Sept. 27/1 The magnificent costumes, the spacious and believable settings and the uniformly competent cast.

1957 Billboard 18 Nov. 14/3 Gary Merrill turned in a most believable performance as the husband.

1969 Times 16 Aug. (Saturday Review) p. ii/4 There is generally too a believable plot.

2007 D. Brook Trap ii. 49 Cheryl Mendelson could write a wholly believable novel set in contemporary Manhattan and consciously model it on the novels of nineteenth-century British author Anthony Trollope.