Liable
(Li"a*ble) a. [From F. lier to bind, L. ligare. Cf. Ally, v. t., Ligature.]
1. Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable; as, the surety is liable for the debt of his
principal.
2. Exposed to a certain contingency or casualty, more or less probable; — with to and an infinitive or
noun; as, liable to slip; liable to accident.
Syn. — Accountable; responsible; answerable; bound; subject; obnoxious; exposed. — Liable, Subject.
Liable refers to a future possible or probable happening which may not actually occur; as, horses are
liable to slip; even the sagacious are liable to make mistakes. Subject refers to any actual state or
condition belonging to the nature or circumstances of the person or thing spoken of, or to that which
often befalls one. One whose father was subject to attacks of the gout is himself liable to have that
disease. Men are constantly subject to the law, but liable to suffer by its infraction.
Proudly secure, yet liable to fall.
Milton.
All human things are subject to decay.
Dryden. Liableness
(Li"a*ble*ness), n. Quality of being liable; liability.
Liage
(Li"age) n. [Cf. OF. liage a bond. See Liable.] Union by league; alliance. [Obs.]
Liaison
(||Li`ai`son") n. [F., fr. L. ligatio, fr. ligare to bind. See Ligature, and cf. Ligation.] A union,
or bond of union; an intimacy; especially, an illicit intimacy between a man and a woman.
Liane
(Li*ane" Li*a"na) n. [F. liane; prob. akin to lien a band, fr. L. ligamen, fr. ligare to bind. Cf.
Lien, n. ] (Bot.) A luxuriant woody plant, climbing high trees and having ropelike stems. The grapevine
often has the habit of a liane. Lianes are abundant in the forests of the Amazon region.
Liar
(Li"ar) n. [OE. liere. See Lie to falsify.] A person who knowingly utters falsehood; one who lies.
Liard
(Li"ard) a. [OF. liart, LL. liardus gray, dapple.] Gray. [Obs.] Chaucer.
Used by Chaucer as an epithet of a gray or dapple gray horse. Also used as a name for such a horse.
Liard
(||Liard) n. [F.] A French copper coin of one fourth the value of a sou.
Lias
(Li"as) n. [Cf. F. lias, fr. liais sort of limestone, OF. also liois; perh. of Celtic origin, cf. Armor.
liach, leach, a stone, Gael. leac, W. llech. Cf. Cromlech.] (Geol.) The lowest of the three divisions
of the Jurassic period; a name given in England and Europe to a series of marine limestones underlying
the Oölite. See the Chart of Geology.
