a. Forms: 4–7 tretable, (5 treteable, tretabill, -ylle, 6 -yl), 5– treatable. [ME. tretable, a. F. traitable (13th c. in Godef.):—L. tractābilem: see TRACTABLE. In some senses f. TREAT v. + -ABLE.]
1. Easily handled or dealt with; tractable, manageable, docile; open to appeal or argument, ‘easy to be entreated,’ affable. (Of persons, etc. or their attributes.) Obs. or arch.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 1992. Makayre ioyed þat þey were … so tretable; He þankeþ God þat he haþ founde So mylde wymmen yn wedlak bounde.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶ 584. Man is a quik þing by nature and tretable to goodnesse.
1496. Dives & Paup. (W. de W.), X. v. 376/2. Yf he be meke & tretable, gyue hym [horse] a smothe brydel.
1578. Chr. Prayers, in Priv. Prayers (Parker Soc.), 489. Thou … art treatable and mild,… thou shewest mercy unto thousands.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, xvii. ¶ 10. Suffer themselves to cool into a treatable temper.
1711. Shaftesb., Charac., II. ii. (1737), I. 238. Those arts, by which the people were render’d more treatable in a way of reason and understanding.
1888. Doughty, Arabia Deserta, I. 583. Nasr … had showed himself more treatable since the others’ departure.
† b. Of things: Tractable; yielding to treatment, as a disease; flexible or ductile, as a metal.
1340. Ayenb., 94. God … huanne he nhesseþ þe herte, and makeþ zuete and tretable, ase wex ymered, and ase land guod and agrayþed. Ibid., 167. Gold … þe more hit is ine uere: þe more hit is clene and clyer and tretable.
c. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, 27. Considere þe lech bisily, þe wounde … if it be wele tretable and with-out hardnes.
1543. Traheron, Vigo’s Chirurg., II. xi. 45. Yf the canker be tretable in the begynnynge,… and in suche parte of the bodye, that it maye seme possible to be rooted uppe.
† c. Of or in reference to actions, etc.: Gentle, easy, moderate, deliberate, not violent. Obs.
c. 1430. Stans Puer, 78, in Babees Bk. (1868), 31. Be soft in mesure, not hasti, but treteable.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. xlvi. § 1. Somewhat there is why a vertuous minde should rather wish to depart this world with a kinde of treatable dissolution, then to bee suddainely cut off.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus ii. 15. (1619), 536. Doctrine may be ponderous and waightie, where the speach is calme and treatable, stil waters often runne the deepest.
1690. Temple, Misc., II. Gard. Epicurus, Wks. 1731, I. 182. In France, and the Low-Countries … the Heats or the Colds, and Changes of Seasons, are less treatable than they are with us.
† d. Of utterance: Deliberate; distinct, clear, intelligible. Obs.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 55. To abyde vpon the tretable sayng of theyre seruyce, be yt neuer so werysom.
1561. Bp. Parkhurst, Injunct., A iv. Whether the parsons … doth reade the common seruice with a lowde, distinct, and treatable voyce.
1632. G. Herbert, Country Parson, vi. [The parson’s] voyce is humble, his words treatable and slow.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., II. Pref., Wks. 1851, III. 147. All these things with a solid and treatable smoothnesse to paint out and describe.
† 2. Capable of being handled or touched, tangible; exposed to touch. Obs. rare.
1382. Wyclif, Heb. xii. 18. Ȝe han not come to the tretable fyer [1388 the fier able to be touchid], and able to come to.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., H iij. What woundes of the bely are moste peryllous and moste dyfficyle to heale?… They in the myddes of the bely bycause the partyes there ben more treatable.
3. Capable of being or proper to be treated or dealt with.
1570. Levins, Manip., 2/42. There be many other [adjs.] in able, deriued of Englishe verbes … as … Treatable, worthy or able to be treated upon.
1657. J. Sergeant, Schism Dispach’t, 614. More liable to the rigour of Martiall law and treatable as a greater enemy.
1741. Warburton, Div. Legat., II. 44. Treatable by the common Rules of Art.
1833. Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Barrenness Imag. Faculty. From the moment that Sancho loses his reverence, Don Quixote is become a—treatable lunatic.
Hence Treatableness, the quality of being treatable; † in quots., tractability, docility; clearness of utterance; mildness of disposition.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 144 b. In dede iustyce, in workes mercy, in maners discyplyne & tretablenes.
1546. Langley, Pol. Verg. De Invent., I. x. 21. To … furnysh it with Elegance of termes & picked wordes:… to vtter it with comely gesture … for the conuenient treatablenesse thereof, doth teache and plainly declare the thing.
1700. Rycaut, Hist. Turks, III. 410. He commended the Wisdom of the present Vizier, his Humanity and Treatableness.
