What does "answerable" mean?

Answerable: Capable of being answered or refuted; admitting a satisfactory answer. The argument, though subtle, is yet answerable. Johnson.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Correspondent; conformable; hence, comparable. What wit and policy of man is answerable to their discreet and orderly course Holland. This revelation . . . was answerable to that of the apostle to the Thessalonians. Milton.
  2. 3.Proportionate; commensurate; suitable; as, an achievement answerable to the preparation for it.
  3. 4.Equal; equivalent; adequate. [Archaic] Had the valor of his soldiers been answerable, he had reached that year, as was thought, the utmost bounds of Britain. Milton.

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