a. [f. EXAMINE v. + -ABLE.]
1. Capable or admitting of being examined. † Of a body: That is to be tested (obs.).
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. xxv. Fff 1 b. The Draughts and first lawes of the Game are positiue, but … not examinable by reason.
1650. Davenant, Gondibert, Pref. 49. Great bodyes are more examinable by being scatter’d into parcells.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. vii. 200. Whatever the truth of this Opinion be, it is not here properly examinable.
1678. R. Russell, Geber, III. II. III. iii. 220. Blow upon the Surface of the Examinable Body until it flows.
1794. G. Adams, Nat. & Exp. Philos., II. xxl. 404. The smallest examinable quantity of matter.
1808. Bentham, Sc. Reform, 70. Half a dozen witnesses not examinable but at so many different days.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxxvii. (1856), 340. The horn, that monodontal process which gives them their name of sea-unicorn, was perfectly examinable.
† b. Sc. Examinable persons: parishioners eligible to be examined for admission to communion.
1719. R. Erskine, Lett., in Fraser, Life, 46. [There are] upwards of 5000 examinable persons in the congregation.
1722. Walker, Life of Cargill, 30. In which Parish 300 out of 900 examinable Persons wasted away.
1850. Form of Petit., in Cook, Styles of Writs Ch. Crts. Sc., 185. The present examinable population of the parish amounts to — persons.
2. Law. Subject to examination or inquiry; competent to be examined or inquired into; cognisable.
1594. West, Symbol, II. Chancery, § 71. That it be such as is examinable in this court.
1666. Pepys, Diary, 21 Feb. The privileges of Parliament … are few to the Commons’ house, and those not examinable by them, but only by the House of Lords.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. xviii. 471. His determinations are final, and examinable in no other court whatsoever.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), V. 300. A fine … is properly examinable in that court only where it is entered.
1884. Sir C. S. C. Bowen, in Law Rep. Q. Bench, XIII. 87. His intentions are examinable to this extent.
