Both Uses of
liability
in
Moby Dick
- Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed.†
Chpt 70-72 *
- It may be but an idle whim, but it has always seemed to me, that the extraordinary vacillations of movement displayed by some whales when beset by three or four boats; the timidity and liability to queer frights, so common to such whales; I think that all this indirectly proceeds from the helpless perplexity of volition, in which their divided and diametrically opposite powers of vision must involve them.†
Chpt 73-75
Definition:
-
(liability as in: she is a liability to our cause) any negative trait or thing that creates a problem