How ready Falsehood stept; how nimbly went
Base pick-thank Flattery, and prevents command.
Daniel, Civil Wars, b. ii. st. 56.
Half way he met
His daring foe, at this prevention more
Incensed.
Milton, Paradise Lost, vi. 129.
Probable. Already in the best classical Latin ‘probabilis’ had passed over into the secondary meaning of ‘probatus;’ thus ‘probabilis orator’ (Cicero) is an approved orator. ‘Probable’ is often so used by our scholarly writers of the seventeenth century; though we now use it only in its original sense of ‘likely.’ On the distinction between ‘probable’ and ‘likely,’ ‘probability’ and ‘likelihood,’ see Garden, Dictionary of Philosophical Terms.
The Lord Bacon would have rewards given to those men who in the quest of natural experiments make probable mistakes. An ingenious miss is of more credit than a bungling casual hit.—Fuller, Mixt Contemplations, i. 26.
S. Ambrose, who was a good probable doctor, and one as fit to be relied on as any man else, hath these words.—Bishop Taylor, Doctrine and Practice of Repentance, Preface.