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Glite Dictionary
pawnable

pawnable

1 6.5
Someone can take it to a shop that lends money to get a loan
  • adjective
  • /ˈpɔnəbl/
: empeñable
  • He decided to sell his pawnable guitar to cover his rent this month.
  • pawnable item

Examples

  • "They break into houses like mine looking for pawnable items," the woman said.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • The pawnshop was filled with pawnable items like jewelry and electronics.

  • After searching his house, he found several pawnable antiques that could help him pay his bills.

Surface Forms

pawnable positive

Morphology

pawnable = pawn (transparent) = pawn + able

Formed by adding the productive suffix '-able' to the verb 'pawn', yielding the straightforward meaning 'able to be pawned'.

Etymology

Pawnable comes from pawn, which means a 'pledge' or something you leave at a pawnshop when you borrow money. The ending -able means 'can be', so pawnable means an object you 'can pawn', that is, something you can give as security for a loan.