conversable

comparative more conversable · superlative most conversable · alternative conversible

1. Able and inclined to engage in conversation.

   He had a bottle of whisky in one hand, to make himself conversible.

   1957, T. H. White, chapter 29, in The Master, New York: Putnam, page 225

   5 more examples

   It is proper for a Gentleman […] to be Civil, and Conversible in Discourse, to know Men and Manners.

   1655, Margaret Cavendish, The Worlds Olio, London: J. Martin and J. Allestrye, Book 2, Part 2, p. 110

   The elegant Part of mankind […] may be divided into the learned and conversible. […] The conversible World join to a sociable Disposition, and a Taste for Pleasure, an Inclination for the easier and more gentle Exercises of the Understanding,

   1742, David Hume, “Of Essay-Writing”, in Essays Moral and Political

   1792, anonymous, “To Warren Hastings, Esq.,” cited in a letter written by William Cowper to Harriett Hesketh dated 5 May, 1792, in The Life, and Posthumous Writings, of William Cowper, Esqr., Chichester, 2nd ed., 1803, p. 40, I knew thee young, and of a mind While young, humane, conversable, and kind,

   When I had eaten well and heartily, Brother Ambrose, a hearty conversible Frenchman (for all those who wait on strangers have the liberty to speak), led me to a little room […]

   1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Monks”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, London: Kegan Paul, page 91

   I had […] days when I ached for a conversable girl. The island women were […] dour and sallow-faced, and about as seducible as a Free Church congregation.

   1965, John Fowles, The Magus, Boston: Little, Brown, Part 1, Chapter 8, p. 53

   Synonyms: affable, agreeable, approachable, genial, sociable

2. obsoleteAble to be conversed with.

   […] it is not the invisible Devil that I am enquiring after, but an appearing conversible Daemon or Evil Spirit […] assuming human Shape, or at least Voice,

   1728, Daniel Defoe, chapter 3, in A System of Magick, London: Andrew Millar, page 89

   1 more example

   […] a full-grown horse, or dog, is beyond comparison a more rational, as well as a more conversible animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old.

   1789, Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, London: T. Payne and Son, Chapter 17, p. 309, footnote

3. obsoletePertaining to, suited for or exhibiting conversation.

   1691, John Hartcliffe, A Treatise of Moral and Intellectual Virtues, London: C. Harper, p. 156, Of the Three Conversable VIRTUES […] The Virtues which adorn and recommend a Man in Conversation […]

   3 more examples

   1619, John Donne, Sermon 71 in LXXX Sermons, London: Richard Royston, 1640, p. 720, […] it were not hard to assigne many examples of men that have stolne a great measure of learning, and yet lived open and conversable lives, and never beene observed […] to have spent many houres in study

   1780, Thomas Paine, The American Crisis No. 9, in The American Crisis, and a Letter to Sir Guy Carleton, London: Daniel Isaac Eaton, circa 1796, pp. 211-212, […] while you, remote from the scene of suffering, had nothing to lose, and as little to dread, the information reached you like a tale of antiquity, in which the distance of time defaces the conception, and changes the severest sorrows into conversable amusement.

   The evening was quiet and conversible, as Mr. Woodhouse declined cards entirely for the sake of comfortable talk with his dear Isabella,

   1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 12, in Emma: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray, →OCLC, page 210

   Synonyms: conversational