HONOURABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does honourable mean? 

• HONOURABLE (adjective)
  The adjective HONOURABLE has 2 senses:

1. worthy of being honored; entitled to honor and respect

2. adhering to ethical and moral principles

  Familiarity information: HONOURABLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HONOURABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Worthy of being honored; entitled to honor and respect

Synonyms:

honorable; honourable

Context example:

honorable service to his country

Similar:

august; revered; venerable (profoundly honored)

laureate (worthy of the greatest honor or distinction)

time-honored; time-honoured (honored because of age or long usage)

Also:

honest; honorable (not disposed to cheat or defraud; not deceptive or fraudulent)

just (used especially of what is legally or ethically right or proper or fitting)

moral (concerned with principles of right and wrong or conforming to standards of behavior and character based on those principles)

noble (having or showing or indicative of high or elevated character)

reputable (having a good reputation)

worthy (having worth or merit or value; being honorable or admirable)

Attribute:

honorableness; honourableness (the quality of deserving honor or respect; characterized by honor)

Derivation:

honourableness (the quality of deserving honor or respect; characterized by honor)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Adhering to ethical and moral principles

Synonyms:

ethical; honorable; honourable

Context example:

followed the only honorable course of action

Similar:

right (in conformance with justice or law or morality)

Derivation:

honourableness (the quality of deserving honor or respect; characterized by honor)

 Context examples 

And before more than one of the grown dogs White Fang's snarl enabled him to beat an honourable retreat.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

He was very honourable, Traddles was, and held it as a solemn duty in the boys to stand by one another.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His pride never deserts him; but with the rich he is liberal-minded, just, sincere, rational, honourable, and perhaps agreeable—allowing something for fortune and figure.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

For this was it a glorious, for this was it an honourable undertaking.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Mr. Weston's sanguine temper was a blessing on all his upright and honourable exertions; but Mr. Weston earned every present comfort before he endeavoured to gain it.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Thank you, Eleanor—a most honourable testimony.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Not a statesman with the honourable record of Lord Holdhurst?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We want to know, Mr. Gilchrist, how you, an honourable man, ever came to commit such an action as that of yesterday?

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

And when he speaks of Irene Adler, or when he refers to her photograph, it is always under the honourable title of the woman.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I have valued myself on honourable toils and just rewards.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)