a. [ad. L. *supportābilis, f. supportāre to SUPPORT: see -ABLE. Cf. F. supportable.]
I. In active sense.
† 1. Affording support or assistance. Obs. rare.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, I. viii. (S.T.S.), I. 49. Þe favoure of goddis apperit to þame sa supportabill and helplie in all thare besines.
II. In passive sense.
2. Bearable, tolerable, endurable.
a. 1577. Sir T. Smith, Commw. Eng., III. iv. (1584), 96. This thing seemed not supportable to the noble prince King Henrie the eight.
1610. Shaks., Temp., V. i. 145. Supportable To make the deere losse, haue I meanes much weaker Then you may call to comfort you.
1637. Bastwick, Litany, II. 18. It is a prodigious wickednes … and a thing not supportable to compare the Creator of all things to the creature.
a. 1691. Boyle, Hist. Air (1692), 158. The steams of their carcases would make the air so stinking and offensive, that it was scarce supportable.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 169, ¶ 3. Good-nature … makes even Folly and Impertinence supportable.
1784. Cowper, Task, V. 604. The loss of all That can … make frail life, Short as it is, supportable.
1810. Vince, Astron., xxi. 228. It grew very faint, and was easily supportable to the naked eye.
1894. Stevenson & L. Osbourne, Ebb Tide, I. i. The thought of death is always the least supportable when it draws near to the merely sensual and selfish.
b. Capable of being successfully resisted.
1711. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 157. Their … assault with such numbers not being supportable.
3. Capable of being maintained, confirmed or made good; defensible.
1632. J. Burges, Answ. Rejoined, 54. Some reason supportable by the word of God.
1793. Washington, Lett., Writ. 1891, XII. 290. To take fair and supportable ground I conceive to be our best policy.
1812. J. J. Henry, Camp. agst. Quebec, 173. These ideas are … supportable by the authority of some of the best physicians.
1885. Law Times Rep., LIII. 481/1. Bills containing charges which might not be supportable on taxation.
4. In physical sense: Capable of being held up or sustained. rare.
1832–4. De Quincey, Cæsars, Wks. 1859, X. 88. Obliged to cover … each space upon which they trode with parts of their dress, in order to gain any supportable footing.
Hence Supportability, Supportableness, the quality or condition of being supportable; Supportably adv., in a supportable manner, endurably.
a. 1660. Hammond, Serm. Matt. xi. 30, Wks. 1684, IV. 477. The supportableness of the burthen.
1846. Worcester, Supportably.
1867. Carlyle, Remin. (1881), II. ii. 239. My new illustrious ‘study’ was definable as the least inhabitable … bit of human workmanship in that kind…. But, by many and long-continued efforts … I did get it patched together into something of supportability.
