perceptible, a.
(pəˈsɛptɪb(ə)l)
[ad. late L. perceptibil-is (Cassiod., Boëth.), f. percip-ĕre, percept- to perceive: see -ble. Cf. OF. perceptible (1372 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
† 1. In active sense: Percipient, perceptive of.
| 1551–70 B. G. Beware the Cat (1864) 52 The cell perceptible of my brain intelligible was yet so gross. 1644 Digby Nat. Bodies vii. §6. 50 That..will not hinder them from being very hoat to the sense of feeling (which is most perceptible of dense thinges). 1734 Bp. T. Greene Disc. Four Last Things (1753) 7 When this separation happens, of the soul from the body..(the soul)..becomes..more perceptible of happiness or misery. 1772 Birmingham Counterf. I. i. 19 Too perceptible of the tender emotions of love. |
2. Capable of being perceived by the senses or intellect, cognizable, apprehensible; observable.
| 1603 Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1032 The soule is not perceptible by any sense. 1699 Burnet 39 Art. i. (1700) 27 It is perceptible to every man that this is impossible. 1777 Johnson Serm. for Dodd in Boswell, Freed from their bonds by the perceptible agency of divine favour. 1866 Geo. Eliot F. Holt v, With a perceptible flashing of the eyes. |
b. quasi-adv. Perceptibly, distinctly, clearly.
| 1771 Luckombe Hist. Printing 241 After a P..the A separates itself more perceptible than from any other letter. |
Hence perˈceptibleness (rare), capability of being perceived.
| 1709 Brit. Apollo II. No. 43. 2/1 The Perceptibleness of Motion. |