Definition of "sensible"

They ask questions of someone who thinks he's got something sensible to say on some matter when actually he hasn't.

2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 230b

Settle down, raise a family, join the PTABuy some sensible shoes and a Chevrolet

1985, "Weird Al" Yankovic (lyrics and music), “Dare to Be Stupid”, in Dare to Be Stupid, performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic

They would walk, on fair evenings, around the village, and discuss the theory of crop rotation, and the weather, and other such sensible matters.

1999, Neil Gaiman, Stardust (2001 Perennial Edition), page 8

Air is sensible to the Touch by its Motion, and by its Resistance to Bodies moved in it.

1751, John Arbuthnot, An Essay Concerning the Effects of Air on Human Bodies, page 1

The sensible qualities of argentina promise no great virtue of this kind; for to the taste it discovers only a slight roughishness, from whence it may be presumed to be entitled to a place only among the milder corroborants.

1778, William Lewis, The New Dispensatory, page 91

It has been vouchsafed, for example, to very few Christian believers to have had a sensible vision of their Saviour.

1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Folio Society, published 2008, page 45

[T]he diſgrace was more ſensible than the pain.

1690, William Temple, “Of Heroick Virtue”, in Miscellanea. The Second Part. [...], 2nd edition, London: […] J. R. for Ri[chard] and Ra[lph] Simpson, […], section III, page 207

The discovery of the mines of America […] does not seem to have had any very sensible effect upon the prices of things in England.

1776 March 9, Adam Smith, chapter 11, in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. […], volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], book I (Of the Causes of Improvement in the Productive Powers of Labour, […]), page 241

Would your cambric were sensible as your finger.

c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene iii]

with affection wondrous sensible

c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene viii]

He cannot think at any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it.

1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […]

we are now sensible that it would have been absurd

1810, Thomas Green, Extracts from the diary of a lover of literature

Diſingaging myſelf then from his embrace, I made him ſenſible of the reaſons there were for his preſent leaving me; on which, tho' reluctantly, he put on his cloaths with as little expedition, however, as he could help, wantonly interrupting himſelf between whiles, with kiſſes, touches, and embraces, I could not refuſe myſelf to; [...]

1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], pages 213–214

Our temper changed […] which must needs remove the sensible of pain.

1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

Aristotle distinguished sensibles into common and proper.

1857, William Fleming, Vocabulary of Philosophyyy

This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles.

1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps