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movable

movable

1 5.6
A thing you can move, like furniture or animals
  • noun
  • /ˈmuːvəbl/
  • UK
translation icon : bien mueble
  • And his memory's something wonderful; all he has to do is set his oglers once on a ticker or a glimstick, or whatever kind of movable you like, and he can call it to mind years later, like it was yesterday.

Examples

  • So there's got to be a movable object which functions as a anchor point for the ends of strings.

  • And they added a movable pay what's called a payload change out fixture.

  • Now Boat is a movable and I added it totally with extension.

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    Blog text (1)
  • And there is a movable shaft collar here which does the same thing so that you can set a stop for sharpening.

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    Blog text (14)
  • The modern ownership of movables is reducing us to a nomadic horde.

  • As soon as this was settled, Maria, who had stayed at Dillenburg to try and speed up Jan's release, returned to Cologne to close the house and take the family's movables, such as they were, to Siegen.

    Academic text (1999)
  • The estate sale included a variety of movables, such as furniture and appliances.

  • During the move, they carefully packed all the movables into the moving truck.

Synonyms

chattel
vsmovable
  • Formal
11 9.3

A movable personal thing like furniture or a car

is the general legal term for any tangible item able to be moved
personal chattel
vsmovable
  • Formal
8.2

A thing you own that you can move, like furniture or a car

is any tangible item that can be moved rather than part of real estate

Antonyms

11 4.4

Not able to be moved

Compounds

An object you move to stop or allow traffic

A religious holiday whose date changes each year

Surface Forms

movable singular
movables plural

Morphology

movable = movable (semi-transparent) = move + able

The noun is a conversion of the adjective 'movable', but the legal sense 'personal property' is somewhat specialized rather than a fully predictable everyday meaning.

Etymology

Movable as a legal noun comes from the root mov-, from the Latin movēre meaning 'to move', and the ending -able meaning 'able to be'. In law a movable is any object you can pick up or carry, like furniture or animals, not land, so the origin explains why it means 'personal property that can be moved'.