a. [f. prec. + -ABLE: cf. preferable, referable. See also TRANSFERRABLE.] Capable of being transferred or legally made over to another; spec. of bills, drafts, checks, etc.: assignable in the course of business from one person to another; negotiable.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., VI. iii. 286. If we … fall upon consideration with what incongruity they are transferable unto others.
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 149, ¶ 8. Take him in whom what you like is not transferable to another.
1874. Act 37 & 38 Vict., c. 3 § 5. The debentures … shall be transferable by the delivery of such debentures.
1909. Westm. Gaz., 8 March, 2/1. The adoption of the single transferable vote system of proportional representation.
Hence Transferability, the quality of being transferable.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., IV. iii. II. 66. Its easy and safe transferability, its use in paying foreign bills of exchange.
1875. Poste, Gaius, III. Comm. (ed. 2), 431. The complete transferability of obligations was unknown to jurisprudence.
1893. Nation (N. Y.), 25 May, 390/1. We shall [in political economy] regard transferability as meaning exchangeability.
