preventibleadj.

1637 T. Jackson Three Serm. before King 44 in Diverse Serm. All this evill came upon her not by observation; it was not preventible by any forecast or policy.

1790 J. Bentham Draught Judicial Establishment in France iv. 18 Look over your list of law-expences: take any article in it you please: either it is preventible or unpreventible... If preventible, why will you not prevent it?

1840 Times 23 Nov. 3/4 A considerable proportion of other cases of sickness and mortality..the physicians and medical officers..consider to be preventible by the enforcement of proper sanitary regulations.

1885 Manch. Examiner 8 May 4/7 A large loss of life..which was in a great degree preventible and ought to be prevented.

1920 M. Beer Hist. Brit. Socialism II. iv. xxi. 396 Poverty was altogether an unnecessary and preventible evil.

1977 Lancet 24 Sept. 667/2 Maternal smoking during pregnancy thus emerges as the most important single preventible determinant of low birthweights.

2004 Jerusalem Post (Nexis) 4 Jan. 7 The death of [a] child is an unspeakable tragedy, and even more so when the loss was preventible.

1890 Times 30 Aug. 11/6 Until now discussions on the preventibility of diphtheria have been vain, owing to a deplorable want of precision.

1973 Lima (Ohio) News 27 May d4 (advt.) Defensive driving course... Learn how to think in terms of preventibility.

1998 N.Y. Law Jrnl. (Nexis) 22 Dec. 1 In the view of the majority, the ‘supposed preventibility’ of drownings by the ‘use of shoring’ the trench is ‘too speculative’ to satisfy the standard of criminal recklessness.