Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Capable of being tolerated; endurable.
  • adjective Acceptable but not superior; passable: synonym: average.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • That may be borne or endured; supportable, either physically or mentally.
  • Fit to be tolerated; sufferable.
  • Moderately good or agreeable; not contemptible; not very excellent or pleasing, but such as can be borne or received without positive approval or disapproval; passable; mediocre.
  • In fair health; passably well.
  • Synonyms and
  • Endurable, bearable.
  • Indifferent, ordinary, so-so.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Capable of being borne or endured; supportable, either physically or mentally.
  • adjective Moderately good or agreeable; not contemptible; not very excellent or pleasing, but such as can be borne or received without disgust, resentment, or opposition; passable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Capable of being borne, tolerated or endured; bearable or endurable.
  • adjective Moderate in degree; mediocre; passable, acceptable or so-so.
  • adjective Such as to be tolerated or countenanced; permissible; allowable.
  • adjective In fair health; passably well.
  • adverb dialect tolerably; passably; moderately.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective capable of being borne or endured
  • adjective about average; acceptable

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

tolerate +‎ -able

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Examples

  • Of course, Warren might regret actually finishing the drink, which he described as "tolerable, but not good."

    Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Local News 2012

  • Read on, and thou wilt find thy spirit engaged: not by the deserts of what we call tolerable, but by the commands of a pen that is above it.

    Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist, Volume II Henry Vaughan 1658

  • In the class of 1844 one student obtained his degree of A.B. whose grades in the Senior year were "very bad" in Latin, "tolerable" in Chemistry and in Constitutional Law.

    History of the University of North Carolina. Volume I: From its Beginning to the Death of President Swain, 1789-1868 Kemp Plummer 1907

  • But the Unites States decision to place American hunter-killer ballistic missiles, first strike missiles, 110 miles from the Chinese mainland, on soil that China sees, rightly or wrongly, as Chinese soil, is NOT within tolerable limits.

    Matthew Yglesias » A Piece of the Action 2010

  • But the Unites States decision to place American hunter-killer ballistic missiles, first strike missiles, 110 miles from the Chinese mainland, on soil that China sees, rightly or wrongly, as Chinese soil, is NOT within tolerable limits.

    Matthew Yglesias » A Piece of the Action 2010

  • The only thing that makes it remotely tolerable is the fact that the government in question is as local as possible.

    Archive 2006-06-01 2006

  • At the same time, the only thing that makes incipient American Fascism tolerable is seeing Conservatives fall victim to it.

    mjh's blog — 2006 — June 2006

  • The only thing that makes it remotely tolerable is the fact that the government in question is as local as possible.

    Fear 2006

  • More tolerable is a similar practice in the realm of hard news, as when Tom Brokaw or Wolf Blitzer utters the plural WMD ( 'weapons of mass destruction').

    Word Court 2004

  • More tolerable is a similar practice in the realm of hard news, as when Tom Brokaw or Wolf Blitzer utters the plural WMD ( 'weapons of mass destruction').

    Word Court 2004

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