a.; also 6–7 accomptable. [f. ACCOUNT v. + -ABLE.]
1. Liable to be called to account, or to answer for responsibilities and conduct; answerable, responsible. Chiefly of persons. a (to a person, for a thing).
1583. T. Watson, Poems (1870), 134. He setteth them downe in this next page following, but not as accomptable for one of the hundreth passions of this booke.
1603. Drayton, Heroical Ep. (1619), Pref. I ought to be accountable of my private meaning.
1623. Sanderson, Serm., Ad. Mag. I. 10 (1674), 86. They stand accountable to him from whom they have received it; and woe unto them if the accounts they bring in be not … answerable to the receipts.
1688. King’s Decl., 14/2. I am nevertheless Accomptable for all Things that I openly and voluntarily … do or say.
1713. Steele, Englishm., No. 1. 9. I am accountable to no Man, but the greatest Man in England is accountable to me.
1812. Wellington, in G. D., IX. 153. The officer commanding the company must be accountable to the volunteer for the residue of the sum.
1873. W. Collins, New Magd. (Tauchn.), I. xiv. 222. She is not accountable for her actions.
b. Also without to or for.
1642. Declar. Lords and Comm., 9 Jan., 4. The Lord Lieutenant and Committee shall be accomptable.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. vi. 152. That he was in fact an accountable child.
1742. Middleton, Cicero, I. Pref. 36 (ed. 3). The Consuls, whose reign was but annual and accountable, could have no opportunity of … erecting themselves into Tyrants.
1788. Reid, Active Powers, I. v. 523. It is of the highest importance to us, as moral and accountable creatures.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem. (1852), viii. 222. God has chosen also to sustain the character of a governor of accountable agents.
† 2. To be counted or reckoned on. Obs.
1603–5. Sir J. Melvil, Mem. (1735), 286. I could do him accountable Pleasure and good Service.
1709. J. Collier, Ess. on Sev. Mor. Subj., I. 39 (ed. 6). Those who have not, must be Curates … or else lay by the use of their Priesthood; which I am afraid is not very accountable.
† 3. Able to be reckoned or computed. Obs.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie (1869), 90. There is an accomptable number which we call arithmeticall (arithmos) as one, two, three.
† 4. To be reckoned or charged; chargeable, attributable to. Obs.
1681. Evelyn, in Pepys Corr., 311. That I did not proceed with the rest is accountable to his successor.
5. Able to be accounted for or explained; explicable. (Cf. unaccountable.)
1665. Glanville, Scepsis Sci., 34. The proposed Instances are far more accountable then this before us.
1684. T. Burnet, Theo. Earth, i. 20. A way of making the deluge fairly intelligible, and accountable without the creation of new waters.
1834. Ht. Martineau, Moral, III. 124. The progress of freedom has been continuous and accountable.
1869. Swinburne, Ess. & Stud. (1875), 207. There is another omission after verse 165, more accountable than this.
1876. Geo. Eliot, D. Deronda, III. xxxvi. 59. By George—it was a very accountable obstinacy.
b. With for.
1745. Wesley, Answ. Church, 45. Every thing, which is not strictly accountable for, by the Ordinary Course of Natural Causes.
1862. F. Hall, Refut. Hindu Philos. Syst., 81, note. As for the phraseology, that the guṇas, or components of nature, are made up of happiness, &c., it is accountable for only by the identity, under one aspect, of a property and that which is propertied.
