[ad. L. apt-us fitted, suited, appropriate, pa. pple. of *ap-ĕre to fasten, attach.] Const. to, for, or inf.
1. Fitted (materially), fitting. rare.
1791. Cowper, Iliad, III. 393. His brother’s corslet … apt to his own shape and size.
2. Suited, fitted, adapted (to (obs.) or for a purpose); having the requisite qualifications; fit.
a. of things. arch.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clvii. (1495), 707. Stoble is apt to many dyuerse vses.
1432–50. trans. Higden, Rolls Ser. I. 163. Thei toke places apte to make cites.
1526. Tindale, N. T., Addr. To make it more apte for the weake stomakes.
1625. Bacon, Ess. (Arb.), 471. States … apt to be the Foundations of Great Monarchies.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 181. The Workman chuses such sizes as are aptest for his Work.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., I. II. ii. 54. Tracts of Preussen are … frugiferous, apt for the plough.
b. of persons: Fit, prepared, ready. arch.
1474. Caxton, Chesse, 27. Whiche of hem … was most apte for to sende to gouerne and juge the contre of spayn.
1526. Tindale, Luke ix. 62. No man that … loketh backe is apte to the kyngdom of God.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., III. i. 160. Liue a thousand yeeres, I shall not finde my selfe so apt to dye.
a. 1700. Mrs. Hutchinson, Mem. Hutchinson, 22. He was apt for any bodily exercise.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. I. 20. Tall was he, slim, made apt for feats of war.
3. ellipt. Suited to its purpose; suitable, becoming, appropriate.
1563. Myrr. Mag., Blacksmith, xix. The Plowman fyrst his land doth dresse and torne And makes it apte.
1597. Morley, Introd. Mus., Annot. [Musicke is] a disposition of proportionable soundes deuided by apt distances.
1630. Dekker, Honest Wh., II. Wks. 1873, II. 99. Pray the good woman take some apter time.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 8, ¶ 1. Recommending the apt Use of a Theatre as the most agreeable … Method of making a … moral Gentry.
1807. Wordsw., Resol. & Indep., xvi. To give me human strength, by apt admonishment.
b. esp. of language: Suitable or appropriate to express ideas; apposite, expressive.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., V. i. 65. In all the play There is no one word apt.
1688. Ld. Delamer, Wks., 20. Apt words and quaint Phrases are very good adornments of Speech.
1865. Mill, Liberty, v. 57/1. What in the apt language of Bentham is called pre-appointed evidence.
c. of thoughts, remarks, etc. Appropriate to the occasion, apposite.
1844. Disraeli, Coningsby, V. vii. 216. The prompt reply or the apt retort.
1849. W. Irving, Mahom. & Succ., xiv. (1853), 63. The smoke was an apt thought, and saved his camp from being sacked.
1877. Sparrow, Serm., xxi. 284. The apt reply of the little Sunday-school scholar, who, when asked what eternity was, replied, ‘The life-time of God.’
4. Having a habitual tendency or predisposition (to do something).
1570. Levins, Manip. (1867), 28. Apte, aptus, idoneus … is also the signe of verballes in -bilis, and participials in -dus: Apt to be taught, docilis; Apt to be red, legibilis.
a. of things: Calculated, likely; habitually liable, ready.
1528. More, Heresyes, IV. Wks. 248/2. Yet be such workes … apte to corrupt and infect the reder.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. i. 1048. For fat is wondrous apt to burn.
1784. Cowper, Lett., Feb. 29, Wks. 1876, 161. Nothing is so apt to betray us into absurdity as too great a dread of it.
1858. Freeman, Norm. Conq., II. vii. 124. Any kind of taxation is apt to be looked on as a grievance.
b. of persons: Customarily disposed, given, inclined, prone.
c. 1550. Lusty Juv., in Hazl., Dodsl., II. 53. That I may be apt thy holy precepts to fulfil.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. i. 34. So apt to quarell.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XXIV. 530. For apt is youth to err.
1771. Franklin, Autobiog., Wks. 1840, I. 85. I perceive I am apt to speak in the singular number.
1857. Ruskin, Pol. Econ. Art, 26. We are apt to act too immediately on our impulses.
5. Susceptible to impressions; ready to learn; intelligent, quick-witted, prompt. Mod. const. at.
1535. Coverdale, Ecclus. xxxvii. 22. Some man is apte and well instructe in many thinges.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., V. iii. 68. O hatefull error … Why do’st thou shew to the apt thoughts of men The things that are not.
1660. Pepys, Diary, 28 Aug. Beginning to teach my wife some scale in musique, and found her apt beyond imagination.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe (1858), 220. He was the aptest scholar that ever was.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Life in Wilds, vi. 77. Men … are … apt at devising ways of easing their toils.
¶ quasi-adv., as in apt-deceiving, -divided.
1597. Daniel, Civ. Wars, I. lxx. Intestine strife … The apt-divided state entangle would. Ibid. (1717), 213. Such apt-deceiving Clemency And seeming Order.
