eatable
nounEtymology From eat + -able (“able, capable”). Doublet of edible.
1
In plural Anything edible; food.
- The Excise which is laid very high throughout all Sicily, especially upon all eatables and wearing apparel is usually there […]1675, E. W., An Exact Relation of All the Late Revolutions in Messina, London, page 2:
- Ecod, your worship, I never have courage till I see the eatables and drinkables brought upo’ the table, and then I’m as bauld as a lion.1773, Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to Conquer, London: F. Newbery, act II, page 18:
4 more examples
- […] the ground […] was already being occupied by the “cheap Jacks,” with their green-covered carts and marvellous assortment of wares; and the booths of more legitimate small traders, with their tempting arrays of fairings and eatables; and penny peep-shows and other shows, containing pink-eyed ladies, and dwarfs, and boa-constrictors, and wild Indians.1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days, Part I, Chapter 2:
- Someplace in the Hegdehaugen area I stopped outside a grocer's where some food was displayed in the window. A cat lay asleep beside a round loaf of white bread, and just behind it was a bowl of lard and several jars of oats. I stood eyeing these eatables a while, but since I didn't have anything to buy with I turned away from them and continued my tramp.1890, Knut Hamsen, Sult (Hunger), Part One, at p.45 (Canongate Books Ltd. 2016 paperback edition), Sverre Lyngstad translation
- “You’ll be using the best tea-set, of course, Marilla,” she said. “Can I fix up the table with ferns and wild roses?” “I think that’s all nonsense,” sniffed Marilla. “In my opinion it’s the eatables that matter and not flummery decorations.”1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 21, in Anne of Green Gables, London: L.C. Page & Co, page 222:
- The presence of a large number of people ensured that vendors selling eatables made brisk business.2011 January 8, “For kids’ sake, a long, cold wake”, in Deccan Herald:
- Synonyms
- comestible, edible