saleable, a.
(ˈseɪləb(ə)l)
Also (6 salehable), 6– salable.
[f. sale n.2 + -able.]
1. a. Capable of being sold; fit for sale; commanding an easy or ready sale. Also absol. or as quasi-n.
| 1530 Palsgr. 323/1 Saleable, vendible. 1539 Taverner Erasm. Prov. (1552) 42 Wyne that is saleable and good nedeth no bushe. 1615 G. Sandys Trav. 66 That which in England is not saleable, doth passe here amongst them for most excellent. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, London (1662) ii. 219 His book..had been more salable, if more conformed to our modern language. 1763 Museum Rust. I. 27 Being at a loss what to do with my crop, which was not saleable in my neighbourhood. 1845 Stephen Comm. Laws Eng. (1874) II. 621 note, Certain offices in the Queen's Bench and Common Pleas were saleable by the chief justices of those courts respectively till the year 1825. 1871 M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. I. vi. 189 A horse saleable at three hundred guineas. 1881 Times 29 Jan. 11 Grenada Cocoa is more readily salable than other qualities. 1886 C. Scott Sheep-farming 144 After..the saleable lambs and draft ewes have been disposed of. 1945 Sun (Baltimore) 4 Aug. 8/7 Five hundred salables were offered and 2,500 went directly to packers. 1946 Ibid. 15 Jan. 10-O/2 Salables amounted to 2,500 head, compared with 5,000 head marketed a week ago. |
| Comb. 1868 Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869) 233 To cut good, salable-sized potatoes for seed. |
| transf. 1565 Jewel Repl. Harding Concl., As for your Eloquence,..as it serueth wel, to make the mater more salehable in the sight of the simple, so [etc.]. |
† b. On sale, for sale.
Obs. rare—1.
| 1599 Sandys Europæ Spec. (1632) 115 They were content to let it be translated.., as also some number of Copies to be saleable a while at the beginning. |
c. Said of the price which an article will fetch.
| 1778 Chron. in Ann. Reg. 186 Divers goods to the saleable value of 172l. 1881 H. George Progr. & Pov. vii. iii. 327 If the land belong to the people, why.. should the people pay its salable value for their own? |
2. Venal, mercenary. Now
rare or
Obs.| 1579 Fenton Guicciard. xiii. (1599) 624 The corruptions of men salable, would not be sufficient to transport the Empire from the Germaine nation to the house of France. 1598 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. iii. Colonies 633 We finde the Alman in his fight courageous, But salable. 1650 Fuller Pisgah ii. viii. 172 Saint Paul eloquently defended his innocence, against the salable tongue of Tertullus. 1798 E. Inchbald Lovers' Vows v. i, Tell him, my honour has never been saleable. |