resistible, a.
(rɪˈzɪstɪb(ə)l)
[f. resist v. + -ible. Cf. F. résistible, Sp. resistible.]
Capable of being resisted; to which resistance can be made.
| 1643 Prynne Sov. Power Parl. iii. (ed. 2) 121 Our Opposites must..make Kings as resistible, censurable, deprivable,..as far forth as they. 1675 Baxter Cath. Theol. ii. i. 172 They make Gods Grace a resistible thing, which Man can frustrate. 1759 Johnson Rasselas xxxi, Earthquakes themselves, the least resistible of natural violence. 1813 Sir R. Wilson Priv. Diary (1862) II. 235 A tempting booty, but I feel confident resistible, if not tangible with honour. 1884 Ch. Times 14 Nov. 858/4 A genuine outbreak..would be no more resistible than James II found it. 1903 G. B. Shaw Man & Superman iii. 134 As to your Life Force, which you think irresistible, it is the most resistible thing in the world for a person of any character. 1966 Listener 9 Nov. 597/3 The most resistible of the new MPs..his voice, as usual, half-way between a splutter and a jeer. 1979 Financial Times 14 Apr. 21/3 The water babies themselves are frightful infants..given to singing resistible underwater ditties. |
Hence reˈsistibleness; reˈsistibly adv.
| 1674 Hickman Quinquart. Hist. (ed. 2) 125 God by his Spirit shall only resistibly, indifferently and remotely..regenerate and renew our selves. 1847 Webster, Resistibleness. 1888 J. Martineau Study Relig. II. iii. ii. 272 A dynamical resistibleness to a numerical law. |