adv. [f. as prec. + -LY2.] In a colorable manner.
1. With a fair appearance, speciously, plausibly.
a. 1400. Serm. agst. Miracle Plays, in Rel. Ant., II. 55. Addyng many lesynges therto so colowrably that the puple ȝife as myche credense to hem as to the trwthe.
1548. Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. xxii. 105. Colourably with fayre speakyng should entise him.
a. 1667. Cowley, Ess. Solitude. If it were as truly as it is colourably and wittily said.
a. 1718. Penn, Tracts, Wks. 1726, I. 697. It might have reflected more colourably a kind of neglect upon them.
2. Under a feigned or counterfeit appearance; feignedly; in appearance but not in reality.
1523. Act 14 & 15 Hen. VIII., c. 4 § 1. They occupie here … not only for themselfe but also colourably for other straungers.
1546. Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. (1550), 50 b. Colourably or dyssemblyngly reconcyled.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 466. Fayningly, and counterfetly or colorably.
1868. E. Edwards, Ralegh, I. ii. 29. The jewels were sent, colourably … to Germany.
1883. Law Rep., 11 Q. B. Div. 436. He … colourably withdrew from the partnership.
3. With a show of reason or legality; with a prima facie ground or pretext; on the face of it.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 463. To the end he might colourably depose him.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xlii. 277. There is no other place that can so much as colourably be drawn to countenance [it].
1786. Burke, W. Hastings, Wks. 1842, II. 198. [It] could not be even colourably disposed of at the pretended will of the said nabob.
1862. Sat. Rev., 13 Sept., 308. No one could doubt that the issue was at least colourably different.
