tenable Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. adjective satellite based on sound reasoning or evidence
    well-founded.
    • well-founded suspicions

WordNet

Ten"a*ble adjective
Etymology
F. tenable, fr. tenir to hold, L. tenere. See Thin, and cf. Continue, Continent, Entertain, Maintain, Tenant, Tent.
Definitions
  1. 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