a. [a. F. justifiable (13–14th c.), f. justifier to JUSTIFY.]
† 1. = JUSTICIABLE. Obs.
1523. Fitzherb., Surv., xviii. 33 b. Here you my lorde R. that I W. de C. fro thus day forthe to you shalbe faythfull and lowly … and I shall be iustifyable of body and of goodes.
1643. Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., App. 17. Whom Cæsar … calleth Reguli, little Kings, being themselves subjects and justifiable to the Nobility, who had all the Soveraignty.
2. Capable of being legally or morally justified, or shown to be just, righteous or innocent; defensible.
Justifiable homicide: see HOMICIDE sb.2
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. xiii. (1634), 628, marg. Departure from Monkerie to some other honest kind of life [is] justifiable.
1586. A. Day, Eng. Secretary, II. (1625), 39. May it not sometimes be justifiable to breake a mans head?
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, Pref. § 4. The stile of a Souldier is not eloquent, but honest and iustifiable.
1717. J. Keill, Anim. Oecon. (1738), 8. In no Case … is the drawing off a large Quantity of Blood at a time justifiable.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. xiii. 104. Little artifices which a tradesman thinks himself justifiable in practising.
1859. J. Cumming, Ruth, ii. 15. Emigration from one’s own land seems hardly justifiable.
† b. Of an assertion, etc.: Capable of being maintained, defended, or made good. Obs.
1612. Selden, Illustr. to Drayton’s Poly-olb., viii. 127. It is iustifiable by Cæsar, that they vs’d to shaue all except their head and vpper lip … but in their old Coynes I see no such thing warranted.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., III. xxiv. 170. Some in the water doe carry a justifiable resemblance to some at the Land.
1651. Raleigh’s Ghost, 201. That so much raine could cause so great an inundation … may be made justifyable partly by reason, and partly by experience.
† 3. Fitted to justify a claim or the like. Obs.
1755. Magens, Insurances, II. 417. The justifiable Instruments of the Cargo and Loss of the Goods insured and abandoned, the Assured ought to manifest and present to the Assurers.
