reliable
nounEtymology From rely + -able.
1
Something or someone reliable or dependable
- the old reliables
reliable
adj/ɹɪˈlaɪəbl̩/
Etymology From rely + -able.
1
Suitable or fit to be relied on; worthy of dependence, reliance or trust; dependable, trustworthy
- a reliable witness to the truth of the miracles1855, Andrews Norton, Internal Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels:
- the best means, and the most reliable pledge, of a higher objectFebruary 18, 1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Report on Mr. Pitt's Speech in Parliament of February 17, 1800, on the Continuance of the War with France (published in The Morning Post)
1 more example
- According to General Livingston's humorous account, his own village of Elizabethtown was not much more reliable, being peopled in those agitated times by unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty-looking Tories, and very knavish Whigs.1855–1859, Washington Irving, The Life of George Washington:
2
Computing, Engineering, Mathematics, Natural sciences, Physical sciences, Sciences, Signal processing Of a communication protocol Such that either a sent packet will reach its destination, even if it requires retransmission, or the sender will be told that it didn't.
- Synonyms
- secure, dependable, trustworthy, solid, firm
- Antonyms
- unreliable
- Derived terms
- nonreliable, reliabilism, reliabilist, reliableness, reliably, semireliable, superreliable, ultrareliable
- Related terms
- reliability, reliance, rely