Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Legally obligated; responsible: liable for military service. See Synonyms at responsible.
- adj. At risk of or subject to experiencing or suffering something unpleasant. Used with to: liable to criminal charges; liable to diabetes.
- adj. Likely. Often used with reference to an unfavorable outcome: In a depression banks are liable to fail.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Bound in law or equity; responsible; answerable: as, the surety is liable for the debt of his principal.
- Having an aptitude or tendency; subject; exposed, as to the doing or occurring of something evil, injurious, or erroneous: as, we are constantly liable to accidents; your plans are liable to defeat.
- Subordinate; subject.
- Fit; suitable.
- Synonyms Incident, Subject, Likely, etc. (see incident); Apt, likely, etc. (see apt).
Wiktionary
- adj. Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable.
- adj. Exposed to a certain contingency or casualty, more or less probable.
- adj. Likely.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable.
- adj. Exposed to a certain contingency or casualty, more or less probable; -- with to and an infinitive or noun
WordNet 3.0
- adj. held legally responsible
- adj. subject to legal action
- adj. (often followed by `to') likely to be affected with
- adj. at risk of or subject to experiencing something usually unpleasant
Etymologies
- From Old French lier ("to bind"), from Latin ligare ("to bind, to tie") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, probably from Old French lier, to bind, from Latin ligāre; see leig- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“\ "Arianna argued that although Beck may not be legally liable, he is \" morally liable\ "for the violence and anger his show may provoke.”
“Ryan also recommended the increase in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. guarantees that's now an agreed item, and introduced the proposal to suspend mark-to-market accounting rules, which he describes as liable to throw banks into "a death spiral" because no market now exists for their assets.”
“You are liable from the squeeze of the trigger to the final resting point of that projectile/projectiles and hope nobody slips and falls on it.”
“Not being held liable is like expecting someone else to pay your employees.”
“The possibility that party officials and members of its national executive committee could become liable is being taken seriously by union leaders, and has been underlined by the decision of equity fund chairman David Pitt-Watson not to accept the post as Labour's general secretary.”
“Can’t hold everyone up and down the chain liable for that bad action. 230 may force you to be much more granular and let some people go or choose criminal enforcement if appropriate.”
“So saying one shouldn’t be legally liable is not the same thing as saying that one shouldn’t be morally liable.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Stalking Victims’ Duty to Warn Employees, Lovers, Visitors, and Others?
“As for the statement above that the council should be liable, that is laughable at best!”
“An audit by the agency's inspector general found that 93 percent of the returns claiming credits for homes bought in 2009 were coded incorrectly, meaning those taxpayers could be incorrectly identified as liable for repaying the credit.”
“This was a civil trial and she's been found "liable" for damages.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘liable’.
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 318 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Transcendentalism (Thoreau)
A list of words from our Thoreau readings.
simplicity, Aurora, vigor, Memnon, somnolence, servitor, simplify, supernumerary, sentinel, rudiment, Veda, Saint Vitus and 43 more...
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hard to sense
somewhat, somewhere, elsewhere, whereby, likewise, spite, ever, along, otherwise, whatever, whichever, hitherto and 116 more...
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ff
attribute, sticking, distinct, perseverance, trend, clarify, avoidant, ambivalent, disoriented, cling, prompting, appositive and 94 more...
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-bles
fine find endings
able, amble, bable, cable, cible, coble, dable, fable, gable, gible, tible, table and 241 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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norrell's Words
hush, dove, euphoria, nebulae, bryn mawr, darling, phoenix, nape, cream, butterscotch, cosmos, frost and 190 more...
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Learned words
Words which are highly likely to be found in the work of learned writers.
ailurophile, labyrinthine, lagniappe, colleague, anechoic, reglets, fluctuations, scalar, implicit, constitute, mortification, ambassadors and 629 more...
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Papageno's Words, Pt. I
hobbledehoy, absquatulate, chthonic, prolix, ululate, internecine, verisimilitude, animadversion, concupiscence, vertiginous, cucullate, lucubrate and 1554 more...
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barfi
turpentine, cognate, connotation, denotation, bias, unflinching, emptive, mob, amnesty, modestly, spear, incline and 150 more...
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2007bee-r02
2007 Scripps National Spelling Bee Round 2
query, tendency, danceable, parachute, malignant, brutal, humanely, lyrically, deductible, shindig, gravel, embroidered and 274 more...
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Norman Lewis
All Words
ebullient, eccentric, eclectic, edify, efface, effusion, egalitarian, egocentric, egoist, egregious, elicit, elliptical and 907 more...
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