Both Uses of
audible
in
Of Human Bondage
- He had got his teeth in the pillow so that his sobbing should be inaudible.†
Chpt 11-12 *inaudible = not capable of being heardstandard prefix: The prefix "in-" in inaudible means not and reverses the meaning of audible. This is the same pattern you see in words like invisible, incomplete, and insecure.
- He spoke slowly, in a curious manner, as though he were straining to hear something which was only just audible.†
Chpt 47-48audible = capable of being heard
Definitions:
-
(1)
(audible as in: barely audible) capable of being heard
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
In football, the term has come to include an instruction shouted from the line of scrimmage.
Recently, the word is also being used to indicate sounds that could be played on a phone or computer; for example "audibles include creative hellos that can be downloaded."