c1440 Gesta Romanorum (Harl.) lxi. 257 A semly yonge knyȝte.. he wolle fiȝt for yow..yf ye wolle yeve to him competente salarye.

1491 Act 7 Hen. VII c. 14 As muche therof..as shuld be competent or nedefull to the seid reparacion.

?a1560 L. Digges Geom. Pract.: Pantometria (1571) i. xxxv. sig. L j v Draw a streight line of competente length.

1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §108 Harmony requireth a competent distance of Notes.

1664 J. Evelyn Pomona vi. 17 in Sylva A competent while before Christmas.

1791 J. Smeaton Narr. Edystone Lighthouse §256 A competent quantity being put down to the bottom of the hole.

1817 J. Mill Hist. Brit. India II. v. ix. 705 Mr. Pitt's bill..being now supported by a competent majority, was passed into an act.

1535 J. Mason in H. Ellis Orig. Lett. Eng. Hist. ii. II. 55 Vitaylls be of a competent pryce: all other things as cloth, lether, books, etc. be unresonable dere.

1581 R. Mulcaster Positions xxxiii. 119 Such as be newly recouered from sicknes..must content themselues with small and competent exercise.

1625 F. Bacon Ess. (new ed.) 339 They grew to rest upon Number, rather Competent, then Vast.

a1780 J. Harris Philol. Inq. (1781) ii. ii. 77 Greek was spoken with competent purity in Constantinople, even to the fifteenth century.

1692 R. Bentley Confut. Atheism from Struct. & Origin Humane Bodies: Pt. II 23 A matter..allowed by all competent Judges.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. i. 16 The King asked him only of the Journey..of which he might be a competent counsellour.

1787 T. Jefferson Writings (1859) II. 207 The merchant..will be competent to this measure whenever he finds it a necessary one.

1856 R. W. Emerson Eng. Traits v. 96 If all the wealth in the planet should perish..they know themselves competent to replace it.

1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. ii. 13 We engaged a strong and competent guide.

1660 Bp. J. Taylor Ductor Dubitantium I. i. ii Religion is our competent guide.

1794 J. Hutton Diss. Philos. Light 57 Our sight..is not always competent for determining the absolute want of light.

1878 T. H. Huxley Physiography (ed. 2) 127 A river is competent to effect its own purification unless overtaxed with pollution.

1877 G. K. Gilbert Rep. Geol. Henry Mts. (U.S. Geogr. & Geol. Surv. Rocky Mt. Region) v. 110 A stream which can transport débris of a given size, may be said to be competent to such débris. Since the maximum particles which streams are able to move are proportioned to a sixth power of their velocities, competence depends on velocity.

1960 B. W. Sparks Geomorphol. v. 81 If a stream is not competent to move load of the calibre available.

1893 B. Willis in U.S. Geol. Surv. Ann. Rep. ii. 250 If we describe the sufficiently firm stratum by the word competent, we may formulate the law of anticlinal development... In strata under load an anticline arises along a line of initial dip, when a thrust, sufficiently powerful to raise the load, is transmitted by a competent stratum. The resulting anticline supports the load of an arch, and being adequate to that duty it may be called a competent structure.

1953 E. S. Hills Outl. Struct. Geol. (ed. 3) iv. 82 Relatively strong (‘competent’) beds.

1965 A. Holmes Princ. Physical Geol. (rev. ed.) x. 234 Strong competent beds of rocks like quartzite cannot readily change their thicknesses.

1932 C. H. Waddington in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) B. 221 223 This competence is a new potentiality which has arisen. The idea of competence covers two concepts already in use, reactionsfähig and labil determiniert. Reactionsfähig means that the tissue..is competent to differentiate to a certain tissue but requires a definite stimulus.

1935 Discovery May 136/2 The ectoderm is continually changing through internal causes and is only reactive or ‘competent’ during a certain period of its existence, but within this period several different substances can cause a nervous differentiation.

1483 W. Caxton tr. Caton A viij Make thy self redy for to answere before thy competent juge.

1536 Act 28 Hen. VIII c. 14 §6 Any competente courte, hauynge iurysdiction in the place.

1581 W. Lambarde Eirenarcha iii. ii. 345 Whereof the Justices of Peace bee competent Judges.

a1626 F. Bacon Speech in A. Wilson Five Yeares King Iames (1643) 71 Some few words touching the nature of the proofes, which in such a case are competent.

1768–78 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. (ed. 8) III. iii. xxiii. 369 All witnesses..except such as are infamous or such as are interested in the event of the cause..are competent witnesses.

1883 Law Rep.: Queen's Bench Div. 11 597 It has been held..that..an action for damages was not competent against a supreme judge for a censure passed by him..on a counsel.

1708 Chamberlayne's Magnæ Britanniæ Notitia (1743) ii. ii. vi. 389 The causes competent to the Admiralty Court of Scotland, are these among others.

1614 J. Selden Titles of Honor 118 Som abstracts are proper notes of Soueraigntie: as Maiestie which is now competent to none but supreme Princes.

1690 J. Locke Ess. Humane Understanding ii. i. 39 That, perhaps, is the Privilege of the infinite Author and Preserver of all things..but is not competent to any finite Being.

1765–9 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. It is not competent to the defendant to allege fraud in the plaintiff.

1841 H. J. Stephen New Comm. Laws Eng. I. 100 Though it is competent to Parliament to legislate for the colonies.

1795 W. Paley View Evidences Christianity (ed. 3) II. iii. ii. 301 I think that it is competent to the Christian apologist to return this answer.

1850 T. S. Baynes New Anal. Logical Forms 76 Having particular conclusions where universal are competent.

1850 Sir W. Hamilton in T. S. Baynes New Anal. Logical Forms 154 Two arrangements are competent.