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LIABLE
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
At risk of or subject to experiencing something usually unpleasant
Example:
she is liable to forget
Synonyms:
apt; liable
Classified under:
Similar:
likely (has a good chance of being the case or of coming about)
Derivation:
liability (the quality of being something that holds you back)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Held legally responsible
Example:
men between the ages of 18 and 35 were liable for military service
Classified under:
Similar:
responsible (worthy of or requiring responsibility or trust; or held accountable)
Derivation:
liability (the state of being legally obliged and responsible)
Sense 3
Meaning:
(often followed by 'to') likely to be affected with
Example:
liable to diabetes
Synonyms:
liable; nonimmune; nonresistant; unresistant
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
susceptible ((often followed by 'of' or 'to') yielding readily to or capable of)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Subject to legal action
Example:
liable to criminal charges
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
nonexempt ((of persons) not exempt from an obligation or liability)
Context examples:
To be honest, I came into the Klondike because I thought it the place you were least liable to be in.
(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)
Limited partners also enjoy rights to the partnership's cash flow, but are not liable for company obligations.
(Limited Partnership, NCI Thesaurus)
Then, to the two affrighted onlookers: "Keep away! If you interfere, somebody's liable to get hurt."
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
I thought of Steerforth: and a foolish, fearful fancy came upon me of his being near at hand, and liable to be met at any turn.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
He argued, that the very laws of nature absolutely required we should have been made, in the beginning of a size more large and robust; not so liable to destruction from every little accident, of a tile falling from a house, or a stone cast from the hand of a boy, or being drowned in a little brook.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
As he cannot be influenced by those feelings which you rank highly as temptation and reward to the soldier and sailor in their choice of a profession, as heroism, and noise, and fashion, are all against him, he ought to be less liable to the suspicion of wanting sincerity or good intentions in the choice of his.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Just opposite to us, at the other side of the broad, white road, was the Friar’s Oak Inn, which was kept in my day by John Cummings, a man of excellent repute at home, but liable to strange outbreaks when he travelled, as will afterwards become apparent.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
And as I looked at her, though I never saw her appear to more advantage, it struck me that she was heated, and would therefore be particularly liable to take cold.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
At any moment he was liable to be snapped off the gaff, but he was helpless with fright.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
