corrigible

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English

Etymology

From Middle English corrigible, corigyble, from Old French corrigible.

Adjective

corrigible (comparative more corrigible, superlative most corrigible)

  1. Able to be corrected or set right.
    Synonym: correctable
    Antonym: incorrigible
    • 1859, John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, London: John W. Parker & Son, Chapter 2, p. 38,[1]
      Why is it, then, that there is on the whole a preponderance among mankind of rational opinions and rational conduct? [] it is owing to a quality of the human mind, the source of everything respectable in man either as an intellectual or as a moral being, namely, that his errors are corrigible.
  2. (obsolete) Submissive to correction
    Synonym: docile
    • c. 1606 William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV, Scene 14,[2]
      Wouldst thou [] see
      Thy master thus with pleach’d arms, bending down
      His corrigible neck []
      (i.e. Would you like to see your master with his arms tied together, bending his docile neck)
  3. (obsolete) Deserving chastisement.
    Synonym: punishable
    • 1640, James Howell, Dodona’s Grove, London: H. Mosley, “Prince Rocalino’s Journey to Elaiana,” p. ,[3]
      [] he was taken up very short, and adjudgd corrigible for such presumptuous language.
  4. (obsolete) Having power to correct.
    Synonym: corrective
    • c. 1604 William Shakespeare, Othello, Act I, Scene 3,[4]
      Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.

Translations

See also