possibles
- 1Plural of possible.
The selectors narrowed the possibles down to a shortlist of three.
She circled the possibles on her list of job candidates.
Note
Only the noun has a plural. The adjective possible never takes an -s. The noun is itself rare and colloquial, used for someone or something under consideration. So possibles sounds natural in talk of shortlists and candidates but casual in formal writing, where options or candidates is safer. The same spelling also names the frontiersman's kit.
- 2The essential personal equipment carried by an American frontiersman, such as tools, ammunition, and fire-making supplies.
Like a soldier's standard kit: the personal essentials kept on the body at all times.
He stuffed his possibles into a leather bag before setting out across the plains.
Every trapper kept his possibles close, never trusting them to the pack mule.
Similargear, kit, equipment, belongings
Note
Today the word lives mostly in one compound, the possibles bag. That was the hip-worn pouch in which mountain men kept their fire-making kit, ammunition, small tools and repair items. On its own, possibles in this sense reads as frontier language. It belongs to writing about that time and place rather than to everyday talk about gear.
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