recoverableadj.
/rᵻˈkʌv(ə)rəbl/, U.S. /rəˈkəv(ə)rəb(ə)l/, /riˈkəv(ə)rəb(ə)l/ 1. Law. Able to be recovered or obtained by law or a legal process.
ΘΚΠ
society > law > administration of justice > court proceedings or procedure > action of courts in claims or grievances > claim at law > [adjective] > that may be (successfully) claimed
recoverable1448
suable1574
1448 in J. Stuart Extracts Council Reg. Aberdeen (1844) I. 401 Al sumes..bath recouerable and unrecouerable.
1590 H. Swinburne Briefe Treat. Test. & Willes i. f. 15 Legacies..are all at this present recouerable by like actions.
1643 in W. W. Hening Statutes at Large: Coll. Laws Virginia (1823) I. 262 That all monie debts made since the 26th day of March 1642..shall not be pleadable or recoverable in any court of justice vnder this government.
1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. iv. 2529 They..promised the good People shortly Ease in the matter of Protections, (by which, the Debts from Parliament men, and their Followers and Dependents, were not recoverable).
1736 D. Neal Hist. Puritans III. 494 That there may be a fixed maintenance in every parish recoverable by the incumbent.
1778 T. Jefferson in Public Papers (1984) v. 372 The part of those who are on private expence,..shall be recoverable, if withheld, together with costs, on motion in any Court of Record.
1847 J. R. McCulloch Descr. & Statist. Acct. Brit. Empire (ed. 3) II. v. iv. 471 A pecuniary penalty, recoverable on summary conviction by a justice of the peace.
1875 B. Jowett in tr. Plato Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 112 That mere debts should not be recoverable by law.
1920 Act 10 Geo. V c. 4 §2 If the profits..exceed the sum apportioned to that undertaking,..the excess shall be payable to the Controller by the owner of the undertaking and shall be recoverable as a debt due to the Crown, and the amount so payable is in this Act referred to as adjustment levy.
1991 Choice Jan. 47/1 A civil debt recoverable in the local county court.
2.
a. gen. Able to be recovered or regained; retrievable, reusable.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > acquisition > [adjective] > retrievable or recoverable
recuperable?a1439
recoverablea1500
recuperative1623
repertible1656
retrievable1661
regainable1707
redeemable1850
?a1425 (a1400) Brut (Corpus Cambr.) 319 Ȝet thilk Northren wynd..lost good wiþoute nombre vnrecouerable.
?1473 W. Caxton tr. R. Le Fèvre Recuyell Hist. Troye (1894) I. lf. 24v Whan I see that the Infortune of my fader is irrecouerable & that his Infelicyte hath no recourance, I renonce the world.]
a1500 (a1471) G. Ashby Active Policy Prince 684 in Poems (1899) 34 I mene..of wilfulnesse people to supprise, That micht otherwise be recouerable.
1591 R. Percyvall Bibliotheca Hispanica Dict. at Recuperable Recouerable.
1668 H. More Two Last Dialogues iv. xxxvii. 226 They in a short time may be recoverable to the obedience of the See of Rome.
1685 London Gaz. No. 2044/2 The Cannon, some whereof are mounted, and others sunk, though easily recoverable.
1725 E. W. Amorous Bugbears 18 I begin to examine Particulars, and noch [sic] down my Observations upon the Skirts of my Memory with more recoverable exactness.
1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison III. xxi. 193 As giving it up for recoverable, I became for a few moments motionless.
1805 W. Saunders Treat. Mineral Waters (ed. 2) 428 When again cooled, the smell is no longer recoverable.
1845 Encycl. Metrop. XII. 479/1 For a while the Siennese flattered themselves that their liberty would be recoverable.
1885 Manch. Examiner 26 Aug. 3/2 The publication of every recoverable sentence that fell from his lips or his pen.
1906 H. James in Harper's Mag. Aug. 248/2 The question, as soon as one arrived, was of whether some ghost of that were recoverable.
1952 F. H. Norris Paper & Paper Making xiv. 222 Water derived from boiler washings and the rag washers is not recoverable.
1964 N. Chomsky Current Issues in Ling. Theory ii. 41 A deleted element is, therefore, always recoverable.
1986 Jrnl. Theol. Stud. 37 i. 175 A ‘programmatic discourse’ of Jesus..[is] recoverable in principle by source criticism.
2001 Independent 23 Mar. ii. 5/1 The pasts that shape us, that never let us go, are never recoverable except in memories doomed to go to sepia—and are only really revisitable in novels like this one.
b. Of a fossil fuel, mineral, etc.: able to be extracted, esp. in an economically efficient way.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > mineral material > [adjective] > of minerals: able to be extracted
recoverable1866
1866 Times 11 May 6/7 When the exhaustion of the recoverable coal was expected the discovery of steam power..laid open what appeared to be inexhaustible resources.
1916 A. B. Thompson Oil-field Devel. & Petroleum Mining iii. 162 A common practice of computing recoverable oil contents of sands in California is to allow 10 per cent, of the cubic contents of the sands.
1924 Mining Mag. 30 187/2 The liquor discharged from the salt plant is discarded, being pumped back into the ‘pan’, where it may or may not add to the recoverable reserves of salt and soda.
1959 D. L. Katz et al. Handbk. Natural Gas Engin. xi. 462/2 The initial gas content [of a natural reservoir] minus the content at a selected abandonment pressure gives the recoverable gas.
1976 Conservation of Resources (Chem. Soc.) 20 So far we have used up some 16% of total possible recoverable oil reserves, and only about 4% in the case of coal.
2007 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 12 July 68 The giant deposit in South Australia holds about 30 per cent of the world's known recoverable uranium reserves.
3.
a. Of a slip, lapse, etc.: from which recovery is possible; retrievable; not final.
ΚΠ
1584 A. Munday Watch-woord to Eng. f. 37v Item, that occasions and fitte oportunities ouer slipped, are not recouerable.
1608 Bp. T. Morton Preamble Incounter 72 I come to note such his falles, as may seeme to bee recouerable by no excuse.
1654 J. Owen Doctr. Saints Persev. xii. 266 An errour, or a mistake in the foundation, is not easily recoverable.
a1713 Ld. Shaftesbury Let. conc. Design in Characteristicks (1715) III. 405 What is in the Beginning set wrong by their example, is hardly ever afterwards recoverable in the Genius of a Nation.
1797 A. M. Bennett Beggar Girl VII. iii. 148 Like vice also, the first lapse was seldom..recoverable.
1833 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. in Philol. Museum 2 16 Has the name escaped me! no matter,..he would smile at a recoverable lapse.
1848 J. Spedding Evening with Reviewer (1881) II. 36 Considering that..a stumble at the threshold [is] scarcely recoverable.
1974 Idaho Falls Post Reg. 20 Nov. a4/3 ‘You've got me wrong,’ the Traveler ejaculated... ‘What I'm saying is that President Ford makes errors, but recoverable errors.’
1995 MIDRANGE Syst. (Nexis) 14 July 30 It monitors local and remote storage and reports both fatal and recoverable errors so that they can be corrected early.
b. Designating a disease, symptom, condition, etc., from which it is possible to recover. Also occasionally in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > amending > [adjective] > put right or amended > able to be
remediable?a1425
corrigible1483
amendablea1500
recoverable1585
curable1592
sanable1623
rectifiable1629
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > characteristics > [adjective] > mild or curable
recoverable1585
schetical1666
mild1684
schetic1706
benign1743
benignant1897
weak1899
avirulent1900
1585 J. Banister Wecker's Compend. Chyrurg. i. 134 And if it [sc. Epiphora] come through the perishinge of the flesh, in the great corners of the eyes, it is hardly recouerable.
1616 A. Champney Treat. Vocation Bishops 1 By how much more the error or deceit in them, is more hurtfull and lesse recouerable.
1652 J. Gaule Πυς-μαντια 240 If you would know..whether the sicknesse, or disease be curable, and recoverable.
1722 D. Turner Art of Surg. I. 348 For Want of this Knowledge, and that of the supervening Symptoms, he does at random pronounce the mortal Wounds recoverable.
1795 W. Nisbet Inq. Cure Scrophula & Cancer 97 If recoverable at all, the symptoms are removed before the arrival of the patient.
1852 Lancet 27 Mar. 309/1 But mere atrophy was recoverable; and though parts of an organ had degenerated irrecoverably, the surrounding structure might be restored to vigour.
1899 Arch. Surg. 10 136 It is not more easily recoverable without treatment than is syphilis.
1962 Times Lit. Suppl. 28 Sept. 759/1 It was realized that many severe mental disturbances were more recoverable than had previously been supposed.
1987 C. Tomalin Katherine Mansfield xiii. 179 Her condition was serious but recoverable.
2006 Jrnl. Gen. Internal Med. 21 1276 While acute illness and hospitalization represent pivotal events for older persons, their contribution to recoverable cognitive dysfunction has not been well examined.
4. Able or likely to be restored to a sound, healthy, or normal condition; revivable.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > healing > recovery > [adjective] > recovering > capable of
recoverablea1599
reactive1809
the world > action or operation > amending > restoration > [adjective] > restored > able to be
restorable1557
repairable1561
recoverablea1599
reducible1646
a1599 E. Spenser View State Ireland 59 in J. Ware Two Hist. Ireland (1633) Having now both soule and body greatly diseased, yet both recoverable.
1663 R. Boyle Some Considerations Usefulnesse Exper. Nat. Philos. ii. iii. 70 'Tis one thing to dispute, Whether all Diseases be curable; and another, Whether all Persons be recoverable.
1676 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 11 652 That it is peculiar to the Thames-water alone, upon Stinking to be recoverable or potable again.
1707–12 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husb. (1721) II. 241 The Earth is to be opened to the bottom to find its Distemper; and if the Root be..hard, 'tis recoverable by applying dry Sand and Soot to it.
1774 W. Cullen Let. to Ld. Cathcart (1776) 2 Drowned persons are more generally in a recoverable state than has been imagined.
1853 Littell's Living Age 30 July 274/1 The bale of boots and shoes next appeared, all gray and green with mouldiness, but recoverable, I was told.
1876 ‘G. Eliot’ Daniel Deronda IV. vii. lvi. 153 Her remorse was the precious sign of a recoverable nature.
1921 J. A. Goldberg Social Aspects of Treatm. Insane iii. 148 Questions have..been raised as to the advisability of continuing the present procedure of indiscriminately..committing all..Jewish patients, recoverable and otherwise, to state institutions in which they..do not progress along the road to recovery as well as..other..patients.
1967 Canad. Med. Assoc. Jrnl. 1 July 19/1 The two columns on the right-hand side of Table III show those who were expected to recover, i.e. ‘potentially recoverable’, and those with disease that made long survival unlikely.
1994 R. J. Sharer & S. G. Morley Anc. Maya (ed. 5) xiii. 603 Scholars remain hopeful that more Mayan books will yet be found in recoverable condition.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > aspects of travel > travel in specific course or direction > [adjective] > capable of being retraced
recoverablea1616
a1616 W. Shakespeare Timon of Athens (1623) iii. iv. 16 A Prodigall course Is like the Sunnes, but not like his recouerable . View more context for this quotation
Derivatives
reˈcoverableness n. = recoverability n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > acquisition > [noun] > back or again > possibility of recovering something
recovery1523
recoverableness1610
recoverability1859
retrievability1884
society > morality > virtue > righteousness or rectitude > reform, amendment, or correction > [noun] > ability to be reformed
reformablenessa1591
recoverableness1610
reclaimableness1695
1610 W. Sclater Threefold Preseruatiue sig. B Recouerablenesse in the elect, instability of reprobates.
1663 R. Boyle Some Considerations Usefulnesse Exper. Nat. Philos. ii. v. xviii. 275 As may appear by the recoverablenesse of the metal out of it.
1892 H. Drummond Programme Christianity 43 The recoverableness of a man at his worst.
1999 Mondaq Business Briefing (Nexis) 9 Feb. To indicate the essential pre-requisites for the manufacture, composition, re-utilisation and recoverableness of packaging.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2009; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1448