a. [f. VOID v. + -ABLE. Cf. AVOIDABLE a.]
1. Capable of being annulled or made legally void; spec. (as distinguished from void), that may be either voided or confirmed.
1485. Rolls of Parlt., VI. 285/2. The same Feoffments, States, Leases … be … not in anie wise voided ne voidable by reason of Coverture.
1544. in I. S. Leadam, Sel. Cases Crt. Requests (1898), 68. Their coppie holldes beynge allwayes voydable in the lawe at the wyll of the lord.
1590. Swinburne, Testaments, 241. The testament made by feare is not voide ipso iure, but voidable by the helpe of exception.
1602. Fulbecke, 1st Pt. Parall., 3. In the one case the gift or conueyance is voidable onely, in the other it is void to all intents.
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., II. 78. Even as a Marriage, Bond, or deed made by Duresse or Menace, are good in Law, and not meerly void, but voidable only upon a Plea and Tryall.
1726. Ayliffe, Parergon, 38. If the Metropolitan … grants Letters of Administration, such Administration is not void, but voidable, by a Sentence.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 423. These civil disabilities make the contract void ab initio, and not merely voidable.
1809. G. Rose, Diaries (1860), II. 428. Whether the Vicarage … cannot be opened to a new presentation as voidable but not void.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., v. I have but a poor lease of this mansion under you, voidable at your honour’s pleasure.
1875. K. E. Digby, Real Prop., x. § 1 (1876), 369. His [sc. an infant’s] conveyances are voidable, subject, that is, to be ratified or avoided by him when he comes of age.
† 2. Her. That may be made void: (see quot. and VOIDED ppl. a. 2 c). Obs.–1
1610. Guillim, Heraldry, II. v. (1611), 48. Voiding … is the exemption of some part of the inward substance of things voidable by occasion whereof the Field is transparent thorow the charge. [Hence in Phillips, Harris, etc.]
3. Capable of being voided or evacuated. rare.
1663. Boyle, Usef. Exp. Nat. Philos., II. iii. 79. He had … so broaken the Stone, partly by crumbling it, and partly by dissolving the Cement, as to make it voidable by Urine.
Hence Voidability; Voidableness.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Voidableness, capableness of being voided or emptied.
1823. Ann. Reg., Hist. Eur., 90. In some cases there must be a nullity, but that there should be a voidability was most objectionable. Ibid., 91/2. A medium between the entire dereliction of parental authority on the one side and entire voidability on the other.
1883. Sat. Rev., 16 June, 755. Despite the quibble about voidness and voidableness.
