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Glite Dictionary
⚖️ Punishable by hanging 🖼️ Can be hung
hangable

hangable

1 9.9
A crime that can get the death penalty by hanging
  • adjective
  • Archaic
translation icon : sujeto a pena de muerte
  • In the past, stealing a horse was considered a hangable offense in some countries.

Examples

  • The crime was hangable under the old law.

  • Many old laws listed certain acts as hangable, though such punishments are now rare.

  • The judge declared the crime hangable under the strict laws of that era.

  • Is murder hangable in your state?

  • Murder is a serious crime that can lead to a hangable sentence in some countries.

  • The judge explained that the crime he committed was hangable by law.

  • In her report, she noted that certain offenses are considered hangable under strict regulations.

Surface Forms

hangable positive

Morphology

hangable = hang (semi-transparent) = hang + able

Formally derived from 'hang' + '-able', but the legal/specialized sense 'liable to be hanged' is a register-specific extension that may not be obvious to all learners.

Etymology

Hangable also has an older legal sense: it joins hang ('to hang') and -able ('able to'), so it once meant 'punishable by hanging', meaning a crime that the law said could be punished by hanging.