CAPABLE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Capable

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/kˈeɪpəbəl/ Listen

adjective

Capable adj.

Possessing ability, qualification, or susceptibility; having capacity; of sufficient size or strength; as, a room capable of holding a large number; a castle capable of resisting a long assault. "Concious of joy and capable of pain."

Possessing adequate power; qualified; able; fully competent; as, a capable instructor; a capable judge; a mind capable of nice investigations. "More capable to discourse of battles than to give them."

Possessing legal power or capacity; as, a man capable of making a contract, or a will.

Capacious; large; comprehensive. (Obs.) Note: Capable is usually followed by of, sometimes by an infinitive.

Synonyms: Able; competent; qualified; fitted; efficient; effective; skillful.

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Etymology of 'Capable'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Capable" Quotes from Famous Books

... the huge monster was a fairy network of steel, the vast permanent construction of columns and overhead girders. Suspended beneath was a series of tracks carrying traveling and revolving cranes capable of handling the heaviest pieces. We climbed to the top and looked down at the vast stretch of hundreds of feet of deck. It was so vast that it seemed rather the work of a superman than of the puny little ...

— The Treasure-Train • Arthur B. Reeve

... Johnson Miller. Johnson Miller was a little man with snow-white hair and the india-rubber physique of a juvenile acrobat. Nobody knew actually how old he was, but he certainly looked much too advanced in years to be capable of the feats of endurance which he performed daily. He had the untiring enthusiasm of a fox-terrier, and had bullied and scolded more companies along the rocky road that leads to success than any half-dozen dance-directors in ...

— The Little Warrior - (U.K. Title: Jill the Reckless) • P. G. Wodehouse

... certainly appear evident that our military force at present is very inadequate" (Ibid 5 454). John Blaxland, in a letter to Lord Liverpool, 1809, wrote that "it is to be feared that if two frigates were to appear, the settlement is not capable of opposing any resistance" (Ibid 7 231). An unsigned memorandum in the Record Office, "bearing internal evidence of having been written by an officer who was in the colony during the Governorship of Hunter," pointed out that "a naval force is absolutely necessary on the coast ...

— Terre Napoleon - A history of French explorations and projects in Australia • Ernest Scott

... have given are capable of being varied and modified by an intelligent pains-taking cook, to suit the tastes ...

— The Jewish Manual • Judith Cohen Montefiore

... were made of "bap," a compound which is still used in parts of Worcestershire. The receipt is very simple. You mix clinkers, wampum and spelf in equal quantities and condense the compound by hydraulic pressure. I have a well-trained hydraulic ram who is capable of condensing enough "bap" in twenty-four hours to provide the materials for building six four-roomed cottages. I am sorry to say that the "bap" cottage at Hinksey was washed away by a flood a few years ago, and the spot where ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 150, March 15, 1916 • Various

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