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Worthy of honor; fit to be esteemed or regarded; estimable; illustrious. Thy name and honorable family. Shak.

The state of being honorable; eminence; distinction.

Wanting in honor; not honorable; bringing or deserving dishonor; staining the character, and lessening the reputation; shameful; disgraceful; base.

, office, superiority, or distinction. Yet Brutus says he was ambitious, And Brutus is an honorable man. Shak.

A pecuniary punishment or fine; a reparation or recantation. Amende honorable(#). (Old French Law) A species of infamous punishment in which the offender, being led into court with a rope about his neck, and a lighted torch in his hand, begged pardon of his God, the court, etc. In popular language, the phrase now denot…

pensation for a loss or injury; recompense; reparation. [Now const. with sing. verb.] "An honorable amends." Addison. Yet thus far fortune maketh us amends. Shak.

Condition as to ancestors; ancestral lineage; hence, birth or honorable descent. Title and ancestry render a good man more illustrious, but an ill one more contemptible. Addison.

An ensign or flag. [Obs.] More dishonorable ragged than an old-faced ancient. Shak.

treat exceedingly. [Archaic] Your rhymes assassinate our fame. Dryden. Such usage as your honorable lords Afford me, assassinated and betrayed. Milton.

or adopt. The sixth was a young knight of lesser renown and lower rank, assumed into that honorable company. Sir W. Scott.

To accuse; to charge with a crime or a dishonorable act. [Archaic]

Not held by honorable service; as, a base estate, one held by services not honorable; held by villenage. Such a tenure is called base, or low, and the tenant, a base tenant. Base fee, formerly, an estate held at the will of the lord; now, a qualified fee. See note under Fee, n., 4. -- Base metal. See under Metal.…

One of the honorable ordinaries, containing a third or a fifth part of the field. It crosses the field diagonally from the dexter chief to the sinister base. Bend sinister (Her.), an honorable ordinary drawn from the sinister chief to the dexter base.

Descent; lineage; especially, honorable birth; the highest royal lineage. Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam. Shak. I am a gentleman of blood and breeding. Shak.

One of the nine honorable ordinaries, consisting of two broad bands of the width of the bar, issuing, respectively from the dexter and sinister bases of the field and conjoined at its center.

Bringing credit, reputation, or honor; honorable; as, such conduct is highly creditable to him. Macualay. He settled him in a good creditable way of living. Arbuthnot.

r any ornamental fillet encircling the head, especially as a reward of victory or mark of honorable distinction; hence, anything given on account of, or obtained by, faithful or successful effort; a reward. "An olive branch and laurel crown." Shak. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptiblle. 1 C…

ble dealing, insincere, treacherous dealing; duplicity. -- Plain dealing, fair, sincere, honorable dealing; honest, outspoken expression of opinion.

Confinement; restraint; custody. The archduke Philip . . . found himself in a sort of honorable detention at Henry's court. Hallam.

Worthy; honorable; deserving. [Obs.] Chaucer.