6 uses
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Definition
of people: sufficiently capable
or:
of actions or things: adequate for the purpose
or:
of actions or things: adequate for the purpose
- And so it turned out; Mr. Hosea Hussey being from home, but leaving Mrs. Hussey entirely competent to attend to all his affairs.Chapters 13-15 -- Wheelbarrow; Nantucket; Chowder (81% in)
- It is a matter of great astonishment that the consideration of the habits of so interesting, and, in a commercial point of view, so important an animal (as the Sperm Whale) should have been so entirely neglected, or should have excited so little curiosity among the numerous, and many of them competent observers, that of late years, must have possessed the most abundant and the most convenient opportunities of witnessing their habitudes.Extracts (73% in)
- But the Pequod was only making a passage now; not regularly cruising; nearly all whaling preparatives needing supervision the mates were fully competent to, so that there was little or nothing, out of himself, to employ or excite Ahab, now; and thus chase away, for that one interval, the clouds that layer upon layer were piled upon his brow, as ever all clouds choose the loftiest peaks to pile themselves upon.Chapters 28-30 -- Ahab; (Enter Ahab; to Him, Stubb); The Pipe (44% in)
- Or, if for any reason thought to be corporeally incapacitated for that, yet such an one would seem superlatively competent to cheer and howl on his underlings to the attack.Chapters 40-42 -- Midnight, Forecastle; Moby Dick; The Whiteness of the Whale (56% in)
- Having impulsively, it is probable, and perhaps somewhat prematurely revealed the prime but private purpose of the Pequod's voyage, Ahab was now entirely conscious that, in so doing, he had indirectly laid himself open to the unanswerable charge of usurpation; and with perfect impunity, both moral and legal, his crew if so disposed, and to that end competent, could refuse all further obedience to him, and even violently wrest from him the command.Chapters 46-48 -- Surmises; The Mat-Maker; The First Lowering (14% in)
- Hadst thou taken this old blacksmith to thyself ere his full ruin came upon him, then had the young widow had a delicious grief, and her orphans a truly venerable, legendary sire to dream of in their after years; and all of them a care-killing competency.Chapters 112-114 -- The Blacksmith; The Forge; The Gilder (22% in)
There are no more uses of "competent" in Moby Dick.
Typical Usage
(best examples)