a. Also 7 teneable. [a. F. tenable (12th c. in Godef.), f. ten-ir to hold + -ABLE: see -BLE, and cf. TENIBLE.]
1. Capable of being held (in various senses of HOLD v.); that may be kept, kept in, kept back, retained, restrained, or held in control. Now rare.
1602. Shaks., Ham., I. ii. 248 (Qo.). If you have hitherto concealed this sight Let it be tenable [Fol.1 treble] in your silence still.
1649. Heylin, Relat. & Observ., II. 1. That Party … being … tenable by no Oaths, Principles Promises, Declarations.
1856. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., IV. V. xii. § 14. Others tottering and crumbling away from time to time, until the cliff had got in some degree settled into a tenable form.
2. Capable of being held against attack; that may be successfully defended.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., xv. (1599), 693. The City being not tenable … it yeelded.
1673. S’ too him Bayes, 105. Except you … thrust your self in at every place that is not teneable.
1793. Gouv. Morris, in Sparks, Life & Writ. (1832), II. 297. I do not think the position taken at Louvain is tenable.
1855. Prescott, Philip II., I. IV. iii. 421. They might retire from a post that was no longer tenable.
b. fig. Of statements, opinions, etc.: Capable of being maintained or defended against attack or objection.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 186, ¶ 5. The Atheist has not found his Post tenable, and is therefore retired into Deism.
1796. Burke, Regic. Peace, iv. Wks. IX. 67. The Tartarian doctrine is the most tenable opinion.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857), I. 286. The letter of their theories is no longer tenable.
1850. E. H. Browne, Exp. 39 Art., xxxviii. (1860), 831. In favour of that view, the only tenable argument is drawn from the early chapters of the Acts.
3. Capable of being held, occupied, possessed, or enjoyed.
1840. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. lvi. 142. The office was tenable for four years.
1883. L’pool Courier, 5 Oct., 4/9. The scholarships … are tenable for three years.
