measurable, a.
(ˈmɛʒ(j)ʊərəb(ə)l)
Also 4–6 mes-.
[a. F. mesurable:—late L. mensūrābilis, f. mensūrāre to measure. In sense 3 directly f. the Eng. vb.]
† 1. Of persons, their actions, etc.: Characterized by moderation; moderate, temperate; occas. modest.
| 13.. K. Alis. 7050 They beon treowe, and steodefast, Mesureabele, bonére, and chest. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 435 Of his diete mesurable was he. ― Pars. T. ¶862 A wyf sholde eek be mesurable in lokinge and in beringe and in laughinge. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 67 Curteys of language, in spendyng mesurable. 1540 R. Hyrde tr. Vives' Instr. Chr. Wom. (1592) F vj, Follow his [Christ's] sober & measurable mother. 1595 Southwell Tri. Death (1596) 6 Of feeding shee was very measurable, rather too sparing, than too liberall a diet. 1608 T. James Apol. Wyclif 35 Abstinence with prudence was needeful, that is..measureable fasting, both of bodie and soule. |
2. Of moderate size, dimensions, quantity, duration, or speed. Obs. exc. as implied in 3.
| a 1340 Hampole Psalter xxxviii. 7 Lo mesurabils þou sett my dayes. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 241 Þat laborers and louh folk taken of heore Maystres, Nis no Maner Meede bote Mesurable huyre. 1426 Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 22613, I sawgh oon..Goon a mesurable paas. 1494 Fabyan Chron. vii. 413 The Kynge..assembled a mesurable hoost of people. a 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VII, 3 b, Luke warme drynke, temperate heate, and measurable clothes. 1594 Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits iii. (1596) 28 The braine should be tempered with measurable heat. |
3. That can be measured; susceptible of measurement or computation; of such dimensions as to admit of being measured; spec. (of rainfall) not less than 1/100 inch.
| 1599 Hakluyt Voy. II. i. 273 Any measurable wares. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xvi. §8 Number..is that which the Mind makes use of, in measuring all things that by us are measurable. 1780 Marsham in Phil. Trans. LXXI. 451 The annual increase of very old trees is hardly measurable with a string. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. vii. x, The fire of Insurrection gets damped..into measurable, manageable heat. 1876 J. S. Bristowe Theory & Pract. Med. (1878) 480 The descent of the diaphragm..causes measurable enlargement of the upper region of the abdomen. 1893 Times 4 May 10/4 A measurable quantity of rain fell over the western parts of England. |
b. Phrase, to come within a measurable distance of (some undesirable condition or event).
| 1890 Guardian 19 Nov. 1825/1 Reckless dealing in South American securities brought them..within measurable distance of bankruptcy. |
c. Math. (See measure v. 7 b.)
| 1667 Phil. Trans. II. 572 A Multiplex of the Product or least Dividend measurable by those Divisors. |
† 4. Characterized by due measure or proportion.
| 1563 Homilies ii. Coming down of Holy Ghost i. (1859) 458 All which gifts..are..given to man according to the measurable distribution of the Holy Ghost. |
† b. Proportionate to. Obs. rare— 1.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 40 b, The dyner moderate, and the drynke therunto mesurable, according to the drynesse or moystnesse of the meate. |
† 5. Measured, uniform in movement; metrical, rhythmical. Obs.
| 1569 J. Sandford tr. Agrippa's Van. Artes 30 b, To daunce with framed gestures, and with measurable pases. 1586 W. Webbe Eng. Poetrie (Arb.) 22 The force of this measurable or tunable speaking. 1597 Beard Theatre God's Judgem. (1612) 435 The graue behauior, the measurable march, the pompe and ostentation of women dancers. |
b. Mus. = mensurable.
| 1614 Ravenscroft Brief Discourse 1 The Definitions and Diuisions of Moode, Time, and Prolation in Measurable Musick. [1879 Helmore Plain-Song 11 Portions of Plain-Song often fall into strictly measurable forms.] |
† 6. as adv. Moderately. Obs.
| 1542 in Hodgson Hist. Northumbld. (1828) iii. II. 214 note, A lytle town in measurable good reparacions. 1551 Turner Herbal i. K v, The leues are..mesurable roughe. |
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Add: [3.] d. Math. [ad. F. mesurable (E. Borel Le{cced}ons sur la Théorie des Fonctions (1898) iii. 46).] Of a set: having a defined measure (*measure n. 2 g). Of a real-valued function f: such that for any real number a the set of all x for which f(x) > a is measurable.
| 1905 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. CCIV. 243 Let the fundamental set be divided into measurable components in any conceivable way, and let the content of each component be multiplied by the upper (lower) limit of the values of the function at points of that component, and the sum of all such products be formed; then the outer (inner) measure of the integral is defined to be the lower (upper) limit of all such summations. 1906 W. H. & G. C. Young Theory of Sets of Points xii. 260 The points at which X(x) ≥ k form a measurable set. 1968 P. A. P. Moran Introd. Probability Theory iv. 199 From now on we choose a definite σ-field of sets, B, in the space R and since we shall later associate with it a σ-additive measure, we call a set ‘measurable’ if and only if it belongs to the σ-field B. 1986 Nonlinear Analysis X. 1160 C(·) is a measurable, closed-valued multifunction from [ a-∇, a] to ℜn . |