[f. prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being answerable.
1. Correspondency, conformity, adaptation. arch.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. xvi. 95. So as there may be a mutual answerablenesse on both sides.
1659. Hammond, On Ps. cl. 3. The answerableness of the notes in Musick to those observed by nature.
1752. Law, Spir. Love, I. (1816), 45. There are but three forms of nature, in answerableness to the threefold working of the triune Deity.
2. Liability to be called to account; responsibility.
1850. T. T. Lynch, Theoph. Trin., i. 15. To feel … our dependence upon God, and our distinct personality and answerableness.
