Ten"a*ble (?), a. [F. tenable, fr. tenir to hold, L. tenere. See Thin, and cf. Continue, Continent, Entertain, Maintain, Tenant, Tent.]

Capable of being held, naintained, or defended, as against an assailant or objector, or againts attempts to take or process; as, a tenable fortress, a tenable argument.

If you have hitherto concealed his sight, Let it be tenable in your silence still. Shak.

I would be the last man in the world to give up his cause when it was tenable. Sir W. Scott.

© Webster 1913.