Chargeable

a. [f. CHARGE v. + -ABLE.]

  † I.  Of the nature of a charge or burden. Obs.

  † 1.  Burdensome, troublesome. Obs.

1509.  Barclay, Ship of Fooles (1570), 37. Labours diuers to chargeable of warke.

a. 1634.  Randolph, Ode A. Stafford, 4. Leave the chargeable noise of this great Towne.

  † 2.  Weighty, grave; important. Obs.

1494.  Fabyan, VI. clxv. 160. Charlys was at that tyme lettyd with chargeable busynesse.

1563–87.  Foxe, A. & M. (1684), II. 352. The judges shall in full chargeable and lamentable wise, charge the parties … to make true relation.

1614.  Raleigh, Hist. World, II. V. vi. § 2. 718. His chargeable and remarkeable seruice.

  † 3.  Involving responsibility; responsible. Obs.

1532.  Frith, Mirror (1829), 269. A chargeable office is committed unto thee.

1549.  Latimer, Serm. bef. Edw. VI., iv. (Arb.), 105. Supremacye [of the church] … wylbe a chargeable dygnitye whan accompte shal be asked of it.

  † 4.  Burdensome (as a tax or payment); costly, expensive. Obs. (Formerly the most frequent meaning.)

1480.  Caxton, Chron. Eng., ccxxxiv. 255. Grete taxes, costages and raunsonnes—whiche charges were importable and to chargeable.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Sam. xiii. 25. Let vs not all go, lest we be to chargeable vnto the.

1568.  Grafton, Chron., II. 234. Costly and chargeable apparell.

1618–29.  in Rushw., Hist. Coll. (1659), I. App. 15. The Innes and Victualling-houses in England are more chargeble to the Travellers, then in other Countreys.

1660.  Trial Regic. (1679), 186. That it [kingship] was a dangerous, chargeable and useless Office.

1706.  Estcourt, Fair Examp., II. i. 20. Oxford is a chargeable Place, Sir, there is no living there without it [money].

1796.  Burke, Regic. Peace, iii. Wks. VIII. 417. They … furnish them with every chargeable decoration.

  II.  Capable of being, or liable to be charged: in various senses and constructions of the verb.

  † 5.  Liable to be called to account, answerable, responsible. Obs. or arch.

1546.  in Eng. Gilds (1870), 199. Y^e ministers of the Guyld be not chardgeable towardes the cure.

1613.  Sir F. Cottington, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 267, III. 109. None to speake with them but theyr chargable keepers.

1765.  Blackstone, Comm., I. 431. A master is … chargeable if any of his family casteth any thing out of his house into the street … to the damage of any individual.

1845.  Stephen, Laws Eng., II. 56. Writing signed by the party chargeable.

  6.  Liable to be charged with (a fault, etc.).

1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., III. i. § 7. 375. Another thing which is chargeable with the very same difficulty in a higher degree.

1751.  Johnson, Rambl., No. 172, ¶ 11. Chargeable with all the guilt and folly of their own actions.

1870.  Bowen, Logic, xiii. 424. The faults with which it is chargeable.

  7.  Subject to a charge, tax or payment.

1614.  Selden, Titles Hon., 268. If he then had a Thane … that to the King’s tax … had fiue Hydes of land chargeable.

1642.  Sir T. Trevor, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 341. That he the said John Hampden … was Chargeable with the Money then in question.

1775.  Johnson, Tax. no Tyr., 29. Chargeable by English taxation.

1817.  Ld. Lascelles, in Parl. Deb., 782. A bill to make lead mines chargeable to the Poor Rates.

1845.  McCulloch, Taxation, II. v. (1852), 236. The various duties with which it had … been chargeable.

  8.  Liable to be made a charge or expense (to the parish, etc.).

1646.  Bury Wills (1850), 189. Widowes … not to be such as are or haue bene a charge or chargeable to the said parish of Hartest.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 117, ¶ 9. When an old Woman begins to grow chargeable to a Parish, she is generally turned into a Witch.

1885.  Law Rep. 14 Queen’s B. Div., 359. Relief and employment of the chargeable poor.

  9.  Capable of being charged as a liability, obligation, debt, fault, offence, upon, on a person, etc.

1654.  Gataker, Disc. Apol., 47. The repair of the Bodie of the Church were no way chargable upon the Rector.

1796.  Bp. Watson, Apol. Bible, 271. The blunder is not chargeable upon Matthew.

1818.  Cruise, Digest, I. 510. Such debts as are chargeable on the inheritance.

1863.  W. Phillips, Speeches, vi. 104. The same faults are chargeable on the leaders of all the ‘popular movements’ in England.

  10.  Proper to be charged to an account.

1844.  H. H. Wilson, Brit. India, III. III. ix. 497. The balance … unless this were also chargeable to territory.

1884.  Sir C. Bowen, in Law Rep. 13 Queen’s B. Div., 85. The question whether extraordinary expenditure after the entry … is rightly chargeable to general average.