| 释义 |
▪ I. passable, a. (and n.)|ˈpɑːsəb(ə)l, -æ-|
Also 5–6 -yble, 7 passeable.
[a. F. passable (13th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), f. passer to pass: see -able. Cf. It. passabile. In OF. the word had most of the senses retained in Eng.; mod.F. retains only sense 4.]
1. That may be passed, crossed, or traversed.
1413Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton) i. iii. (1859) 4 Ryght as the fletyng ayer geuyth place to the flyght of byrdes..right so was al this erthe passyble to spirites. 1527Knight in Pocock Rec. Ref. I. xxviii. 57 The rivers not being always passable. 1576Act 18 Eliz. c. 10 §7 For the better keeping of the Highways passable for her Majesty's People. 1593R. Harvey Philad. 4 Since Brutes time the Alpes haue been passable enough. 1614Raleigh Hist. World iii. (1634) 106 To leave at their backs a wood scarce passeable. 1685Lond. Gaz. No. 2080/3 The Streets were hardly passable. 1722De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 104 The ford was not passable. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. I. 38 The river is passable for boats..to the Mediterranean, a distance of nearly sixty miles. 1880Geikie Phys. Geog. iv. 302 The last time that the Thames at London was passable on ice was in 1814.
†2. Able to pass or have passage. Obs.
1555Eden Decades 121 Forasmuche as they [sunbeams] are not passyble in them selues, as doth manyfestly appeare by the snowe lyinge contynually vnmolten vpon certeyne hygh montaynes. 1664H. More Antid. Idolatry x. 131 So that a Soul otherwise passable of her self would be necessarily drown'd in this one foul Deluge of Guilt. 1745Hales in Phil. Trans. XLIII. 502 All passable Stones which have lately fallen from the Kidneys into the Bladder,..might readily and easily be brought out thence. 1762Dunn ibid. LII. 464 The Sun's rays become passable through such a length of medium.
3. Of money: That may be circulated, that has valid currency, current; of a book: qualified or fit for circulation. Also fig.
1590Greene Neuer Too Late Wks. (Grosart) VIII. 26 Sterling coyne passable from man to man in way of exchange. 1607Shakes. Cor. v. ii. 13 The vertue of your name, Is not heere passable. 1674Hickman Hist. Quinquart. (ed. 2) 196 He would have prevailed with some of them to authorize his Book, that it might have been more passable. 1702Eng. Theophrast. 188 It is with Men, as it is with false Money; One piece is more or less passable than another, as it happens to have more or less Sense or Starling in the Mixture. 1888B. W. Richardson Son of Star III. xi. 186 The coin may cease to be of value as a passable thing, as money, but as a relic it must always live.
4. That can pass muster; tolerable, fairly good, fair; moderate, sufficient, presentable.
1489Caxton Faytes of A. i. xii. 33 Take gode hede that noon be reteyned but he be passable so that noo fawte be in his persone. 1597Morley Introd. Mus. 122 At that time I thought it excelling, but nowe I feare it will bee found scant passable. 1637Laud Sp. in Star-Chamb. 14 June 6 Our maine Crime is..that we are Bishops; were we not so, some of us might be as passable as other men. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) I. ii. 8 There were many women deemed passable who were inferior to herself. 1838Southey Doctor cxlv. (1862) 398 A passable knowledge of living languages. 1893Times 12 June 4/2 Potatoes appear in eight departments very good, 13 good, 17 satisfactory, 18 passable, six mediocre, and three bad.
†5. Passing, transient, ephemeral. Obs. rare—1.
1627–77Feltham Resolves i. xx. 36 Things acted..are too more retainable, than the passable tones of the tongue.
6. [f. pass v. 46 b + ] Capable of passing or being passed by a deliberating assembly.
1831Whately in Life (1866) I. 66 It is a task of double difficulty to frame what shall be at once an improvement and passable in Convocation [of Oxford University].
7. quasi-adv. = passably.
1581Savile Tacitus, Hist. i. lxxviii. (1591) 43 Things which the..cares at hande made passable good. 1675Marvell Wks. (1872–5) II. 431, I have a passable good estate. 1706E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 41 But for him, the Ship's Crew would be passable good Christians.
8. as n. A person or thing that is passable.
1908Westm. Gaz. 26 June 2/1 Among such offspring there would be a small class of ‘desirables’, a large class of ‘passables’, and a small class of ‘undesirables’.
Hence ˈpassableness, the quality of being passable.
1727Bailey vol. II, Passableness..capableness of being passed. 1779Wolff Dansk Ord-bog, Temmelighed, mediocrity, passableness. 1834Blackw. Mag. XXXV. 176 There was a river to cross, the passableness of which was very questionable. 1888J. Q. Bittinger Hist. Haverhill (N.H.) 191 The roads of Haverhill will average in passableness and comfort with the roads of neighboring towns.
▪ II. passable
obs. erroneous form of passible. |