comfortable

From Old French confortable, from conforter. See also comfort.

• (General American, Canada)
  • enPR: kŭmf'təbl, kŭmf'tərbl, kŭm'fətəbl, kŭm'fərtəbl
  • IPA^(key): /ˈkʌmft.əb.əl/, /ˈkʌmft.ɚb.əl/, /ˈkʌmf.əɾ.əb.əl/, /ˈkʌmf.ɚɾ.əb.əl/
• (Received Pronunciation)
  • enPR: kŭmf'təbl, kŭm'fətəbl
  • IPA^(key): /ˈkʌmft.əb.əl/, /ˈkʌmf.ət.əb.əl/
• (General New Zealand)
  • enPR: kŭmf'təbl
  • IPA^(key): /ˈkɐmft.ɘb.ɘl/, [ˈkɐmft.ɘb.ɯ]

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio (US)

  (file)

comfortable (comparative comfortabler or more comfortable, superlative comfortablest or most comfortable)

1. Providing physical comfort and ease; agreeable. [from 18^thc.]

   This is the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 8, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     We toted in the wood and got the fire going nice and comfortable. Lord James still set in one of the chairs and Applegate had cabbaged the other and was hugging the stove.

2. In a state of comfort and content. [from 18^thc.]

   What a great guestroom! I'll be quite comfortable here.

   • 1913, Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes, chapter I, in The Lodger, London: Methuen, OCLC 7780546; republished in Novels of Mystery: The Lodger; The Story of Ivy; What Really Happened, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co., 55 Fifth Avenue, [1933], OCLC 2666860, page 0016:

     A great bargain also had been […] the arm-chair in which Bunting now sat forward, staring into the dull, small fire. In fact, that arm-chair had been an extravagance of Mrs. Bunting. She had wanted her husband to be comfortable after the day's work was done, and she had paid thirty-seven shillings for the chair.

3. (obsolete) Comforting, providing comfort; consolatory. [14^th-19^thc.]
   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, Oxford: Printed by Iohn Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, OCLC 216894069; The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd corrected and augmented edition, Oxford: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, 1624, OCLC 54573970, partition II, section 2, member 6, subsection ii:

     he was going to make away himself; but meeting by chance his master Plotinus, who, perceiving by his distracted looks all was not well, urged him to confess his grief; which when he had heard, he used such comfortable speeches, that he redeemed him e faucibus Erebi […].

   • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

     a comfortable provision made for their subsistence

4. Amply sufficient, satisfactory. [from 17^thc.]

   A comfortable income should suffice to consider oneself rich.

   The home team is ahead by a comfortable margin.

   • 2011 September 18, Ben Dirs, “Rugby World Cup 2011: England 41-10 Georgia”, in BBC Sport:

     When Hape sauntered over for a try after only three minutes it looked as if England were destined for a comfortable victory, but Georgia are made of sterner stuff, as they showed when running Scotland close in Invercargill last week.

5. (obsolete) Strong; vigorous; valiant.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Wyclif to this entry?)

   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Thy conceit is nearer death than thy powers. For my sake be comfortable; hold death a while at the arm's end.

6. (obsolete) Serviceable; helpful.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     Be comfortable to my mother, your mistress, and make much of her.

• (providing/enjoying comfort): comforting, comfy, cozy, eathful, restful, snug, cushy
• (safely reliable): safe

• comfortless, uncomfortable

• comforter
• discomfort

comfortable (plural comfortables)

1. (US) A stuffed or quilted coverlet for a bed; a comforter.