a. [f. WARRANT v. + -ABLE.] For which warrant may be given.
1. Of actions, sentiments, motives, etc.: That may be authorized, sanctioned or permitted; justifiable.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxiii. § 5. Tutors, without whose authoritie there was no act which they did, warrantable.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 104. Pardon this my digression, not warrantable in a journall.
1691. Norris, Pract. Disc., 49. Tis therefore very Warrantable to pass a Severe Judgment upon a Man, when ’tis plain and out of question that he deserves it.
1774. Sir J. Reynolds, Disc., vi. (1778), 217. It is a necessary and warrantable pride to disdain to walk servilely behind any individual, however elevated his rank.
1834. Marryat, P. Simple, viii. Any other expenses which you may consider warrantable or justifiable.
1846. J. Kenrick, Ess. Primæval Hist., Pref. p. xviii. Since … we can neither deny the fact of a contrariety, nor remove it by any warrantable means.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 482. Only in desperate cases is such heroic use of the remedy warrantable.
b. Const. by, from, to.
1639. Massinger, Unnat. Combat, I. i. B 4. Everie minute to me will be a tedious age till our embraces are warrantable to the world.
1656. in Burton’s Diary (1828), I. 254. They have done nothing but what was warrantable by former precedents.
1659. Milton, Of Civil Power, 5. Having no other divine rule or autoritie from without us warrantable to one another as a common ground but the holy scripture.
1793. Chalkley, Wks. (1751), II. 57. It is Warrantable from Scripture, that Gospel Ministers be honourably supported and maintained.
† 2. That may be guaranteed as good, true, genuine, or the like; of good warrant; praiseworthy, acceptable. Obs.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 471 b. Lett us peruse the Argumentes wherewith this gentle and obedient childe of the Popes good grace doth make his wordes warrantable.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, B 4 b. But this is most warrantable, the Alpha of all the Yarmouths it was, and not the Omega correspondently.
c. 1618. E. Bolton, Hypercritica, iv. § 1. The Books … out of which we gather the most warrantable English are not many to my remembrance.
1626. Middleton, Anything for Quiet Life, III. ii. She says you vent ware that is not warrantable, braided ware.
1709. T. Robinson, Vind. Mosaick Syst., Introd. 11. A Man of the highest Political Accomplishments, as well as True and Warrantable Prudence.
1747. trans. Astruc’s Fevers, 108. From what we have said, it evidently appears, that the works in general of Hippocrates are not warrantable.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Imperf. Sympathies. [I] thought I could not do better than follow the example of such grave and warrantable personages.
3. That can be legally guaranteed.
1876. Blackmore, Cripps, liii. Not a pound should be deducted from his warrantable value, simply because he now did what any other young horse in the world would have felt to be right.
4. Venery. Applied to a stag that is of an age to be hunted.
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 190. The Deer themselves were well enough grown, and warrantable.
1847. Marryat, Childr. N. Forest, v. A warrantable stag—that is, one old enough to kill and to be good venison.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, 82/1. At six [years], a Warrantable Stag.
1884. Jefferies, Red Deer, vi. 104. It must be a runnable stag, or warrantable, a term in its strict meaning indicating a stag of five years.
