visibleadj.n.

1560 J. Daus tr. J. Sleidane Commentaries f. ccxxi Of baptisme, which they saye is a visible and an outward sygne.

1615 T. Adams White Deuill (ed. 4) 69 Onely Seruice hath neyther ease nor concealment allotted it, because it consists in a visible action.

1653 W. Ramesey Astrologia Restaurata 214 [It] denoteth such accidents as are visible in this World.

1664 Bp. J. Taylor Disswasive from Popery i. i. 5 This method..is the best, the most certain, visible and tangible.

1782 J. Brown Compend. View Nat. & Revealed Relig. iv. iii. 362 The Holy Ghost in a visible manner descended upon him at baptism.

1878 B. Stewart & P. G. Tait Unseen Universe iii. §114. 127 The conversion of visible energy into heat.

1562 Articles of Relig. xix The Visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite to the same.

1590 R. Alison (title) A plaine confutation of a treatise of Brownisme,..entitled, a Description of the Visible Church.

1593 R. Hooker Of Lawes Eccl. Politie iii. i. 128 Obseruing the difference, first betweene the Church of God mysticall and visible, then betweene the visible sound and corrupted, sometimes more, sometimes lesse.

1638 W. Chillingworth Relig. Protestants Ans. iv. §53 The doctrine of Christ, the profession whereof constitutes the visible church, the belief and obedience the invisible.

1651 C. Cartwright Certamen Religiosum i. 109 For Visibility, it is granted that ordinarily the Church is visible, i.e. that there is a visible company of such as professe the truth.

1691 G. Keith (title) The Presbyterian and Independent Visible Churches in New England.

1739 Bp. J. Butler Serm. in Wks. (1874) II. 217 It pleased God to unite Christians in communities or visible churches.

1770 A. Booth Death of Legal Hope v. 91 You may attend on a preached gospel, be a member of the purest visible church, and have a seat at the Lord's table; yet after all, die unregenerate and be eternallly lost.

1839 J. Yeowell Anc. Brit. Church (1847) iv. 35 The Christian Church was intended to be a visible Society.

1841–8 F. Myers Catholic Thoughts II. iv. §29. 315 The first establishment of a visible monarchy.

1851 F. W. Robertson Serm. (1863) 4th Ser. ii. 14 There is..a Church visible and a Church invisible; the latter consists of those spiritual persons who fulfil the notion of the Ideal Church—the former is the Church as it exists in any particular age, embracing within it all who profess Christianity.

1879 A. W. Haddan Apostolical Succession Church Eng. iv. 97 That the Church to which Christians are ‘to be added’ was a visible organized body upon earth.

1865 A. M. Bell (title) Visible Speech: a new fact demonstrated.

1883 Science 1 474/1 An important immediate use might be made of a few of the Visible-speech symbols.

1886 A. H. Buck Ref. Handbk. Med. Sci. II. 379/2 Each letter of the Visible Speech Alphabet..is a picture of the vocal organs placed in the proper position for producing the sound indicated.

1947 R. K. Potter et al. Visible Speech i. 4 A sound spectrographic record for the words ‘Visible Speech’ is shown... The pattern is a new form of visible speech, a system of natural phonetic symbols translated from speech itself.

1953 J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. vii. 206 The ‘visible-speech’ machine developed in the Bell Telephone Laboratories..produces the same type of record as does the Sonagraph, but on a continuous, transitory basis.

1412–20 J. Lydgate tr. Hist. Troy i. 290 Eke of her eyen þe lokys moste horible To a furneis the stremys wer visyble.

1614 T. Overbury et al. Characters in Wife now Widdow sig. F2^v His courting language, visible bawdy iests.

1672 R. Baxter Church told of Bagshaw's Scandals ii. 16 His next subject..is one of the visiblest lyes that ever I saw written by a man.

1677 T. D'Urfey Madam Fickle iv. 48 'Tis above the common rate of wonders, and doubtless portends some visible Calamity that threatens the Nation.

1710 N. Luttrell Diary in Brief Hist. Relation State Affairs (1857) VI. 597 The majority being so visible, as at least two to one, they declined insisting thereon.

1764 T. Harmer Observ. Passages Script. i. §15. 38 There is a visible opposition betwixt this account..and those words of our Lord [etc.].

1796 H. Hunter tr. J.-H. B. de Saint-Pierre Stud. Nature (1799) II. 391 Whatever charms may appear in..the human figure, there is no visible reason why it's physical effect should exert an influence over animals.

1835 T. Mitchell in tr. Aristophanes Acharnians 445 (note) A visible decrease in the offences which had been previously committed.

1908 Animal Managem. (War Office) 313 Pneumonia..may..arise without any visible cause.

1693 J. Evelyn tr. J. de La Quintinie Compl. Gard'ner i. ii. xii. 38 I..say, That in case such a Place full of ill Earth, were too low,..it is visible that half the Expence would be sav'd.

1712 J. Swift Remarks on Barrier Treaty 9 To which if we add the many Towns since taken,..it is visible what Forces the States may be able to keep.

1716 J. Addison Freeholder No. 32. ⁋2 It is visible that great Numbers of them have of late eloped from their Allegiance.

1751 R. Paltock Life Peter Wilkins I. xix. 183 So that it was visible, he could never fly.

1779 Mirror No. 45. ⁋7 But all these things a man of fashion can do, without possessing any visible revenue what~ever.

1824 Act 5 George IV c. 83 §24 Every Person wandering abroad..not having any visible Means of Subsistence..shall be deemed a Rogue and Vagabond.

1895 S. R. Hole Little Tour Amer. xv. 210 He ought to have been apprehended as a vagrant having no visible means of support.

1667 J. Milton Paradise Lost xi. 321 On this Mount he appeerd, under this Tree Stood visible . View more context for this quotation

a1677 I. Barrow Wks. (1683) II. 92 As for example, what would an eye..signifie, if there were not light prepared to render things visible thereto.

1704 J. Harris Lexicon Technicum I. at Horizon The Sensible or Visible Horizon, is that Circle which limits our Sight.

1713 R. Steele Englishman No. 55. 353 This elevated Machine was visible to all the People.

1785 W. Cowper Task iii. 232 Philosophic tube, That brings the planets home into the eye Of observation, and discovers, else Not visible, his family of worlds.

1814 J. Playfair Outl. Nat. Philos. II. ii. iii. 281 The disturbance of Jupiter might have so altered its original orbit, as to render the Comet for a time visible from the Earth.

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. ii. 21 The whole glacier was visible to us from its origin to its end.

1868 J. N. Lockyer Elem. Lessons Astron. §330 When a star is so situated that it is just visible on the eastern horizon.

1882 Times 22 Feb. If the statistics relating to the visible supply of grain are to be trusted.

1891 Daily News 3 Dec. 2/3 Messrs...report deliveries of copper in England and France last month as 2,095 tons in excess of the supplies, and ‘visible’ stocks are reduced accordingly.

1882 R. Giffen Use of Import & Export Statistics vii. 58 As to the increase of our shipping business as a means of accounting for the non-increase of our apparent exports. It is because our invisible exports have been increasing so enormously, that there is less increase of the visible.

1917 J. A. Todd Mech. Exchange xiv. 184 Visible and invisible exports alike go to the debit side of the account.

1957 A. C. L. Day Outl. Monetary Econ. xxviii. 365 In this way we get a balance of visible trade: quite literally ‘visible’, because it only includes goods that can actually be seen as they are put on board ship.

1976 Economist 16 Oct. 22/2 In August, 1976, Britain ran a visible trade deficit at an annual rate of £3½ billion, compared with a 1970 deficit of £25m.

1916 E. R. Hudders Indexing & Filing (1919) ii. 26 It is not anticipated that the visible index in any of its forms will ever supersede the card index.

1955 V. George in W. Ashworth Handbk. Special Librarianship iii. 45 The system most usually employed..is some form of visible index.

1722 D. Defoe Jrnl. Plague Year 224 Spreading from that House to other Houses, by the visible unwary conversing with those who were sick.

1772 H. Barnes Notes Cases Court of Common Pleas 1732–56 322 Objected, on the Part of Defendant, That he was a publick visible Man, and Plaintiff had not endeavoured to arrest him.

1835 E. Bulwer-Lytton Rienzi I. ii. i. 181 A foreign signor is with him—but to you he is of course visible.

1848 W. M. Thackeray Vanity Fair lxvii. 620 Jos wasn't up yet; Becky not visible (though she looked at them through the blinds).

1889 F. M. Crawford Sant' Ilario ix He..inquired if he could see the princess. The porter replied that she was not visible, and that the prince had gone out.

1885 ‘Mrs. Alexander’ At Bay vii. 108 He has been pretty steady in his attendance at the Bourse, and done well in a quiet way, but his life has been visible and regular.

1614 T. Jackson Third Bk. Comm. Apostles Creede iii. xxvii. §5 Our bodily sight, which sees diuers visibles all immediately, not one after, or by another.

1650 H. More Observ. in Enthusiasmus Triumphatus (1656) 77 For it is alike easie to see visibles without eyes, as to see invisibles with eyes.

a1674 T. Traherne Instruction in Poems (1966) 15 All that in Visibles is Good Or pure, or fair, or unaccurst.

1721 R. Keith tr. Thomas à Kempis Soliloquy of Soul xii, in tr. Thomas à Kempis Select Pieces II. 200 When thou..beholdest the visibles of this whole Creation.

1748 S. Richardson Clarissa III. xliv. 228 That the charming'st woman on earth..can excel the meanest, in the customary visibles only.

1871 W. H. Gillespie Argument Being & Attributes Absolute One (ed. 5) iii. §2 54 Narrow is their horizon: within it, themselves the only visibles.

1872 W. H. Gillespie Argument Being & Attributes God (ed. 6) iii. §2 188 The things which are seen, were not made of phenomenal visibles.

1895 I. Zangwill Master iii. i. 277 The flux of centuries, the visibles of Art, the invisibles of Religion.

1962 H. O. Beecheno Introd. Business Stud. xv. 143 A country which is running an adverse balance of trade may still have a favourable balance of payments because the gain on ‘invisible’ items exceeds the loss on ‘visibles’.

1968 Economist 23 Mar. 64/1 The current account (that is on ‘visibles’ and ‘invisibles’ but leaving out movements of investment funds).