able

Less common meanings

4. 4
   adjectivedialectal

   Sound in body and physically strong; robust and in good health.

   Note

   The bodily sense is now obsolete in standard English and lives on only in dialect. Its trace survives in able-bodied and in phrases like every able body, where the word means fit and sound rather than skilled. Outside historical or regional writing, fit or strong is the safer choice: "only half the men are fully able" now reads as old-fashioned. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The independent bodily sense of able is obsolete or dialectal. en.wiktionary.org
   • The bodily sense survives in able-bodied. en.wiktionary.org
5. 5
   adjectiveobsolete

   Suitable or competent; fit for a particular purpose or role.

   Note

   Fit for a purpose rather than skilled at it. New Jersey's colonial Concession and Agreement of the 1660s grants land for "every able man servant" sent out armed, meaning men fit for service. It is now obsolete, and suitable or fit carries the meaning. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Able had a sense meaning suitable or competent. en.wiktionary.org
   • New Jersey's Concession and Agreement dates from the 1660s. avalon.law.yale.edu
   • The charter grants land for every able man servant carried or sent armed; the context supports physical fitness for service. avalon.law.yale.edu
6. 6
   adjectiveobsolete

   Easy to use, handle, or wield.
7. 7
   adjectiveobsolete

   Rich and well-to-do; having ample money, land, or other property at one's command.

   Note

   Money is another kind of means. In this obsolete use, an able family was simply a wealthy one, with the means to pay, lend or give. Modern readers easily take it as "talented," so in older texts check whether property or rank is in view. Well-to-do or well off says it today. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • In an obsolete sense, able meant wealthy or well-to-do, so an able family could mean a wealthy family. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   adjectiveobsolete

   Liable to something; likely to undergo or suffer it.

   Note

   Here the word looks at what may befall someone, not at what they can do: it meant liable to something, likely to suffer it. This sense is obsolete and dialectal, so recognize it in old regional writing but do not use it; liable or prone is the modern word. Watch for the trap: in such texts, able to may mean prone to rather than capable of. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The sense meaning liable to is obsolete and dialectal. en.wiktionary.org
   • In historical or dialectal writing, able to can express liability rather than capability. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   verbobsoletetransitive

   To make a person capable of something; to enable.

   Note

   The obsolete verb that enable has since taken over. To able someone was to make them capable, as in abled him to study. It is the causative partner of the core adjective: the verb confers what the adjective describes. A reader who meets it in early texts can safely read it as enable. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Able is an obsolete verb meaning enable or make capable. en.wiktionary.org
   • The verb derives from the adjective and has a causative meaning. en.wiktionary.org
   • Enable is an appropriate gloss when able occurs in the sense discussed. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To give power to; to strengthen or reinforce; to confirm.
11. 11
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To make ready; to prepare a person or thing for use or action.

    Note

    Middle English made a verb directly from the adjective, ablen, and this obsolete sense is its plainest: to able something was to make it ready. It is transitive, so it takes a direct object (able the horses), and it inflects regularly as ables, abling, abled. In anything but deliberately period writing, prepare does the job. Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The verb comes from Middle English ablen, formed from the adjective able. en.wiktionary.org
    • Able had an obsolete transitive sense meaning make ready. en.wiktionary.org
    • The verb has the regular forms ables, abling, and abled. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To vouch for a person or thing; to guarantee or warrant them.

    None does offend, none....I’ll able ’em.

    c. 1603, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”

    Note

    The obsolete verb's most memorable use is Shakespeare's, in King Lear: "None does offend, none… I'll able 'em." To able people here is to vouch for them, staking one's own credit on their innocence. Unlike vouch for, it takes its object directly, with no preposition. Anyone quoting the line should read able as "warrant," not "enable." Source

    Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The obsolete verb able means to vouch for or guarantee someone. en.wiktionary.org
    • The quotation occurs in Shakespeare's King Lear; the character Lear speaks it. The ellipsis correctly omits 'I say, none'. folger.edu
    • Lear personally guarantees their innocence; this is a contextual paraphrase inferred from his assertion that nobody offends and his appeal to his own authority. folger.edu
    • Able takes a direct object in this passage. folger.edu
    • The appropriate gloss here is warrant or guarantee, rather than enable. en.wiktionary.org
13. 13
    verbobsoletetransitive

    To dress a person; to put clothes on them.
14. 14
    adjective

    Capable of performing all the requisite duties of a position, as a sailor rated as an able seaman.
15. 15
    noun

    In some military spelling alphabets used before 1956, the code word for the letter A.