PREFERABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does preferable mean? 

• PREFERABLE (adjective)
  The adjective PREFERABLE has 1 sense:

1. more desirable than another

  Familiarity information: PREFERABLE used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PREFERABLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

More desirable than another

Synonyms:

preferable; preferred

Context example:

Danny's preferred name is 'Dan'

Similar:

desirable (worth having or seeking or achieving)

 Context examples 

She could almost think anything would have been preferable to this.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Using less costly alternatives such as peritoneal dialysis or comprehensive conservative care – support in managing the disease without dialysis or a transplant – may be preferable in places with limited resources.

(Managing diabetes key to lowering kidney disease, SciDev.Net)

We can't have the man on horseback, and anything is preferable to the timid swine that now rule.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

A bride, you know, must appear like a bride, but my natural taste is all for simplicity; a simple style of dress is so infinitely preferable to finery.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Water-swept and aslant, it was preferable to the noisome, rat-haunted dungeons which served as cabins.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I hope your horse may think so too,” said my aunt; “but at present he is holding down his head and his ears, standing before the door there, as if he thought his stable preferable.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I have good reason to think—indeed I have it from the best authority, or I should not repeat it, for otherwise it would be very wrong to say any thing about it—but I have it from the very best authority—not that I ever precisely heard Mrs. Ferrars say it herself—but her daughter DID, and I have it from her—That in short, whatever objections there might be against a certain—a certain connection—you understand me—it would have been far preferable to her, it would not have given her half the vexation that THIS does.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He took notice of a general tradition, that Yahoos had not been always in their country; but that many ages ago, two of these brutes appeared together upon a mountain; whether produced by the heat of the sun upon corrupted mud and slime, or from the ooze and froth of the sea, was never known; that these Yahoos engendered, and their brood, in a short time, grew so numerous as to overrun and infest the whole nation; that the Houyhnhnms, to get rid of this evil, made a general hunting, and at last enclosed the whole herd; and destroying the elder, every Houyhnhnm kept two young ones in a kennel, and brought them to such a degree of tameness, as an animal, so savage by nature, can be capable of acquiring, using them for draught and carriage; that there seemed to be much truth in this tradition, and that those creatures could not be yinhniamshy (or aborigines of the land), because of the violent hatred the Houyhnhnms, as well as all other animals, bore them, which, although their evil disposition sufficiently deserved, could never have arrived at so high a degree if they had been aborigines, or else they would have long since been rooted out; that the inhabitants, taking a fancy to use the service of the Yahoos, had, very imprudently, neglected to cultivate the breed of asses, which are a comely animal, easily kept, more tame and orderly, without any offensive smell, strong enough for labour, although they yield to the other in agility of body, and if their braying be no agreeable sound, it is far preferable to the horrible howlings of the Yahoos.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Indeed, when the time draws on, I shall decidedly recommend their bringing the barouche-landau; it will be so very much preferable.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Elinor had just been congratulating herself, in the midst of her perplexity, that however difficult it might be to express herself properly by letter, it was at least preferable to giving the information by word of mouth, when her visitor entered, to force her upon this greatest exertion of all.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)