Definition of "eatable"
eatable
adjective
comparative more eatable, superlative most eatable
Quotations
The contents of the pan began to boil, and he turned to plunge his hand into the bowl; I conjectured that this preparation was probably for our supper, and, being hungry, I resolved it should be eatable;
1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], Wuthering Heights, volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […]
Their diet includes practically everything eatable they can capture or kill.
1911, “Baboon”, in Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
noun
plural eatables
(chiefly in the plural) Anything edible; food.
Quotations
[…] the ground […] was already being occupied by the “cheap Jacks,” with their green-covered carts and marvellous assortment of wares; and the booths of more legitimate small traders, with their tempting arrays of fairings and eatables; and penny peep-shows and other shows, containing pink-eyed ladies, and dwarfs, and boa-constrictors, and wild Indians.
1857, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown’s School Days, Part I, Chapter 2
Someplace in the Hegdehaugen area I stopped outside a grocer's where some food was displayed in the window. A cat lay asleep beside a round loaf of white bread, and just behind it was a bowl of lard and several jars of oats. I stood eyeing these eatables a while, but since I didn't have anything to buy with I turned away from them and continued my tramp.
1890, Knut Hamsen, Sult (Hunger), Part One, at p.45 (Canongate Books Ltd. 2016 paperback edition), Sverre Lyngstad translation
“You’ll be using the best tea-set, of course, Marilla,” she said. “Can I fix up the table with ferns and wild roses?”“I think that’s all nonsense,” sniffed Marilla. “In my opinion it’s the eatables that matter and not flummery decorations.”
1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 21, in Anne of Green Gables, London: L.C. Page & Co, page 222