reliable

Pluralreliables

1. 1
   adjective

   Able to be depended on or trusted; consistently performing as expected.

   Like a friend who shows up every single time you call.

   The new train service has proven remarkably reliable over its first year.

   Investors look for companies with reliable earnings year after year.

   Similardependable, trustworthy, consistent, steady, solid

   Oppositeunreliable, undependable, erratic, inconsistent

   Note

   The word is rely plus -able, and it quietly drops the on that rely needs: a reliable friend is one you can rely on. It has never been limited to people. Coleridge writes of "the most reliable pledge" in 1800, and in the 1850s Andrews Norton applies it to a witness while Washington Irving applies it to a whole village. Promises, persons and places all qualify.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A person or thing that can be depended on; one that consistently performs as needed.

   Like the trusty old tool you reach for before any other.

   Every newsroom has its reliables: the writers who never miss a deadline.

   When the power failed, the old backup generator proved a true reliable.

   Similarstalwart, mainstay, workhorse, standby

   Note

   The adjective turned noun is most at home in the plural and in the set phrase the old reliables. That phrase names the people or things that have long been counted on, often with a note of affection. The singular, a reliable, is possible but sounds more deliberate. Like any count noun it takes the regular plural reliables.

3. 3
   adjective

   Describes data transmission in which a sent packet either reaches its destination, with retransmission if needed, or the sender is notified of the failure.

   Like certified mail that either confirms delivery with a signature or returns a failure notice.

   Reliable protocols like TCP retransmit any packets that fail to arrive.

   Engineers chose a reliable transport layer so dropped data would trigger a resend.

   Oppositeunreliable

   Note

   Signal processing narrows the everyday sense into a precise guarantee. A reliable protocol does not promise that every packet arrives. It promises that none is lost silently: each packet either gets through, resent if necessary, or the sender learns that it failed. The adjective describes protocols and transport layers rather than the data itself, and its natural foil is best-effort delivery, which makes no such promise.

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