| Plausible, | } |
| Plausibly, | |
| Plausibility. |
That is ‘plausible’ now which presents itself as worthy of applause; yet always with a subaudition, or at least a suggestion, that it is not so really; it was once that which obtained applause, with at least the primâ facie likelihood that the applause which it obtained was deserved.
This John Bishop of Constantinople, that assumed to himself the title of Universal Bishop or Patriarch, was a good man, given greatly to alms and fasting, but too much addicted to advance the title of his see; which made a plausible bishop seem to be Antichrist to Gregory the Great.—Hacket, Life of Archbishop Williams, part ii. p. 66.
The Romans plausibly did give consent
For Tarquin’s everlasting banishment.
Shakespeare, Lucrece, 1854.
He was no sooner in sight than every one received him plausibly, and with great submission and reverence.—Stubbes, Anatomy of Abuses, p. 17.
Being placed in the upper part of the world, [he] carried on his dignity with that justice, modesty, integrity, fidelity, and other gracious plausibilities, that in a place of trust he contented those whom he could not satisfy, and in a place of envy procured the love of those who emulated his greatness.—Vaughan, Life and Death of Dr. Jackson.
| Poach, | } |
| Poacher. |
A ‘poacher’ is strictly speaking an intruder; one who intrudes or ‘poaches’ into land where he has no business; the fact that he does so with intention of spoiling the game is superadded, not lying in the word.