responsible
adjEtymology
From Middle French responsable, from Old French responsable, responsible, formed from the root of Latin responsus, from respondere. The spelling of the English word is taken from the Old French variant responsible. By surface analysis, response + -ible.
- derived from responsus
- derived from responsable
- borrowed from responsable
Definitions
Having the duty of taking care of something
Having the duty of taking care of something; answerable for an act performed or for its consequences; accountable; amenable, especially legally or politically.
- Parents are responsible for their child's behaviour.
Being a primary cause of a situation or action and thus able to be blamed or credited for…
Being a primary cause of a situation or action and thus able to be blamed or credited for it.
- Who is responsible for this mess?
Answerable to (a superior).
›+ 6 more definitionsshow fewer
Involving important duties
Involving important duties; involving a degree of personal accountability on the part of the person concerned.
- She has a responsible position in the firm.
Having good judgment in decision-making.
- But was it responsible governance to pass the Longitude Act without other efforts to protect British seamen? Or might it have been subterfuge—a disingenuous attempt to shift attention away from the realities of their life at sea.
Able to be trusted
Able to be trusted; reliable; trustworthy.
- He looks like a responsible guy.
Capable of rational conduct and thus morally accountable for one's behavior.
The individual who bears the responsibility for something.
- Were this not so, long since would we have traced directly home the responsibility for the war on Freedom in the Philippines. Long since, would we have hanged the responsibles as traitors to our country.
An actor taking on the lesser roles in repertory theatre.
- […] first appeared on August Bank Holiday, 1901, at Grand Theatre, Llandudno, playing "responsibles" with Edward Compton; […]
- 'Well, the Cardinal is the heavy part, isn't it?' 'I know.' 'Then,' said I, 'you'd better go'; and one of the Responsibles took it on, and was perfect on the night.
The neighborhood
- antonymirresponsible
- neighborirresponsible
- neighborrespond
- neighborresponse
- neighborresponsibility
- neighborresponsibleness
- neighborresponsibly
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at responsible. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at responsible. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
9 hops · closes at responsible
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA