▪ I. apt, a.
(æpt)
[ad. L. apt-us fitted, suited, appropriate, pa. pple. of *ap-ĕre to fasten, attach.]
Const. to, for, or inf.
1. Fitted (materially), fitting. rare.
| 1791 Cowper Iliad iii. 393 His brother's corslet..apt to his own shape and size. |
2. Suited, fitted, adapted (to (obs.) or for a purpose); having the requisite qualifications; fit. a. of things. arch.
| 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. clvii. (1495) 707 Stoble is apt to many dyuerse vses. 1432–50 tr. Higden Rolls Ser. I. 163 Thei toke places apte to make cites. 1526 Tindale N.T. Addr., To make it more apte for the weake stomakes. 1625 Bacon Ess. (Arb.) 471 States..apt to be the Foundations of Great Monarchies. 1677 Moxon Mech. Exerc. (1703) 181 The Workman chuses such sizes as are aptest for his Work. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. I. ii. ii. 54 Tracts of Preussen are..frugiferous, apt for the plough. |
b. of persons: Fit, prepared, ready. arch.
| 1474 Caxton Chesse 27 Whiche of hem..was most apte for to sende to gouerne and juge the contre of spayn. 1526 Tindale Luke ix. 62 No man that..loketh backe is apte to the kyngdom of God. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. i. 160 Liue a thousand yeeres, I shall not finde my selfe so apt to dye. a 1700 Mrs. Hutchinson Mem. Hutchinson 22 He was apt for any bodily exercise. 1870 Morris Earthly Par. I. i. 20 Tall was he, slim, made apt for feats of war. |
3. a. ellipt. Suited to its purpose; suitable, becoming, appropriate.
| 1563 Myrr. Mag., Blacksmith xix, The Plowman fyrst his land doth dresse and torne And makes it apte. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. Annot., [Musicke is] a disposition of proportionable soundes deuided by apt distances. 1630 Dekker Honest Wh. ii. Wks. 1873 II. 99 Pray the good woman take some apter time. 1710 Steele Tatler No. 8 ¶1 Recommending the apt Use of a Theatre as the most agreeable..Method of making a..moral Gentry. 1807 Wordsw. Resol. & Indep. xvi, To give me human strength, by apt admonishment. |
b. esp. of language: Suitable or appropriate to express ideas; apposite, expressive.
| 1590 Shakes. Mids. N. v. i. 65 In all the play There is not one word apt. 1688 Ld. Delamere Wks. 20 Apt words and quaint Phrases are very good adornments of Speech. 1865 Mill Liberty v. 57/1 What in the apt language of Bentham is called pre-appointed evidence. |
c. of thoughts, remarks, etc. Appropriate to the occasion, apposite.
| 1844 Disraeli Coningsby v. vii. 216 The prompt reply or the apt retort. 1849 W. Irving Mahom. & Succ. xiv. (1853) 63 The smoke was an apt thought, and saved his camp from being sacked. 1877 Sparrow Serm. xxi. 284 The apt reply of the little Sunday-school scholar, who, when asked what eternity was, replied, ‘The life-time of God.’ |
4. Having a habitual tendency or predisposition (to do something).
| 1570 Levins Manip. (1867) 28 Apte, aptus, idoneus..is also the signe of verballes in -bilis, and participials in -dus: Apt to be taught, docilis; Apt to be red, legibilis. |
a. of things: Calculated, likely; habitually liable, ready.
| 1528 More Heresyes iv. Wks. 248/2 Yet be such workes..apte to corrupt and infect the reder. 1678 Butler Hud. iii. i. 1048 For fat is wondrous apt to burn. 1784 Cowper Lett. Feb. 29 Wks. 1876, 161 Nothing is so apt to betray us into absurdity as too great a dread of it. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. II. vii. 12 Any kind of taxation is apt to be looked on as a grievance. |
b. of persons: Customarily disposed, given, inclined, prone.
| c 1550 Lusty Juv. in Hazl. Dodsley II. 53 That I may be apt thy holy precepts to fulfil. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 34 So apt to quarell. 1718 Pope Iliad xxiv. 530 For apt is youth to err. 1771 Franklin Autobiog. Wks. 1840 I. 85, I perceive I am apt to speak in the singular number. 1857 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art 26 We are apt to act too immediately on our impulses. |
c. Inclined, disposed (in a single instance).
| 1677 R. Cary Palæol. Chron. ii. ii. i. iv. 195, I am apt to think, that..Vashti is meant. 1706 Hearne Rem. & Collect. (1885) I. 297, I am apt to think he has not consulted Books enough upon this occasion. 1899 E. E. Hale Lowell 126, I am apt to think that this modest man was the first person..to recognize [etc.]. |
5. Susceptible to impressions; ready to learn; intelligent, quick-witted, prompt. Mod. const. at.
| 1535 Coverdale Ecclus. xxxvii. 22 Some man is apte and well instructe in many thinges. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. v. iii. 68 O hatefull error..Why do'st thou shew to the apt thoughts of men The things that are not. 1660 Pepys Diary 28 Aug., Beginning to teach my wife some scale in musique, and found her apt beyond imagination. 1719 De Foe Crusoe (1858) 220 He was the aptest scholar that ever was. 1832 H. Martineau Life in Wilds vi. 77 Men..are..apt at devising ways of easing their toils. |
¶ quasi-adv., as in apt-deceiving, apt-divided.
| 1597 Daniel Civ. Wars i. lxx, Intestine strife..The apt-divided state entangle would. Ibid. (1717) 213 Such apt-deceiving Clemency And seeming Order. |
▪ II. † apt, n. Obs. rare.
[f. prec.]
Natural tendency.
| c 1400 Test. Love iii. (1560) 301 b/1 They have as well divers aptes, and divers manner usings, and thilke aptes mowen in will been cleaped affections. |
▪ III. † apt, v. Obs.
[f. prec. adj.: cf. fit, to fit.]
1. To make fit, adapt (to), prepare suitably (for).
| 1575 Laneham Lett. (1871) 35 A song wel apted too a melodious noiz. 1582 Stanyhurst æneid (Arb.) 38 In mydst of chaumber thee roume for bancket is apted. 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster i. i, He shall follow and observe what I will apt him to. 1672 Dk. Buckhm. Rehearsal ii. v, Composing this Air, and apting it for the business. |
b. refl.
| 1540 T. Raynalde Birth Man. i. x. (1634) 37 The matter..inclining and apting it selfe..to the..nature of the vessels. 1633 Massinger New Way, etc. iii. ii, Apt thyself To the noble state I labour to advance thee. |
2. intr. (for refl.) To suit, be suitable or fitting.
| 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. ix. xliv. (1612) 212 Here occasion apteth that we catalogue a while. Ibid. Epit., Out of which I..have gleaned not a little apting to this our abridged Historie. |
3. trans. To incline, dispose to.
| a 1625 Fletcher Love's Pilgr. ii. iii. (T.) They are things ignorant, And therefore apted to that disposition Of doting fondness. 1641 Denham Sophy ii. (1667) 19 The king is melancholy, Apted for any ill impressions. |