a. [ad. L. tangibilis that may be touched, f. tangĕre to touch: see -BLE. So F. tangible (16th c. in Littré).]
1. Capable of being touched; affecting the sense of touch; touchable.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, II. i. (Arb.), 78. or the things that haue conueniencie by relation, as the visible by light colour and shadow: the audible by stirres, times and accents:… the tangible by his obiectes in this or that regard.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. v. 769. That body, or that which is tangible and divisible, is the only substantial thing.
1825. Macaulay, Ess. Milton (1887), 11. The … desire of having some visible and tangible object of adoration.
1886. Myers, Phantasms of Living, I. Introd. 59. These sounds, these movements, these tangible apparitions.
b. Hence, Material, externally real, objective.
1620. T. Granger, Div. Logike, 56. Whereof externall, and tangible workes are produced.
1827. Hare, Guesses, Ser. I. (1873), 3. The threatenings of Christianity are material and tangible.
1874. L. Stephen, Hours in Library (1892), I. iii. 117. He would not have had much chance of winning tangible rewards.
1875. Fortnum, Maiolica, i. 1. From a very early period of human existence, known to us only by the tangible memorials of primitive inhabitants.
2. That may be discerned or discriminated by the sense of touch; as a tangible property or form.
1664. Jer. Taylor, Dissuas. Popery, i. 5. This method … is the best, the most certain, visible and tangible.
1684. J. P., trans. Frambresarius’ Art Physic, i. 14. [They have] so many real Agreements of Tangible Qualities.
1709. Berkeley, Th. Vision, § 45. Certain ideas perceivable by touch—as distance, tangible figure, and solidity.
1814. Chalmers, Evid. Chr. Revel., viii. 211. The only way to learn its tangible properties is to touch it.
3. fig. That can be laid hold of or grasped by the mind, or dealt with as a fact; that can be realized or shown to have substance; palpable.
1709. Berkeley, Th. Vision, § 96. Tangible ideas.
a. 1763. Byrom, Crit. Rem. Horace, Poems, 1773, I. 310. That none of you touch a most tangible Blunder.
1839. G. P. R. James, Louis XIV., II. 284. These proposals assumed a more tangible form … after the arrival of Turenne.
1852. Grote, Greece, II. lxxiii. (1862), VI. 415. Without any tangible ground of complaint.
4. Capable of being touched or affected emotionally.
1813. L. Hunt, in Examiner, 11 Jan., 22/2. He is like the … Executioner,… tangible neither by groan nor by indignation.
Hence Tangibleness, the quality or state of being tangible; Tangibly adv., in a tangible manner.
1727. Bailey, vol. II., *Tangibleness, capableness of being touched or felt by the Touch.
1843. Mill, Logic, I. ii. § 4. When only one attribute … is designated by the name; as visibleness; tangibleness; equality; squareness; milkwhiteness; then the name can hardly be considered general.
1893. C. A. Wingerter, in Barrows, Parl. Relig., II. 1410. We have not appreciated it [duty to the poor] fully unless we recognize its tangibleness.
1847. Webster, *Tangibly.
1858. Macdonald, Phantastes, v. (1878), 73. The human forms appeared … more tangibly visible.
