Navigable

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Navigable \Nav"i*ga*ble\, a. [L. navigabilis: cf. F. navigable.
     See {Navigate}.]
     Capable of being navigated; deep enough and wide enough to
     afford passage to vessels; as, a navigable river.
     [1913 Webster]
  


     Note: By the common law, a river is considered as navigable
           only so far as the tide ebbs and flows in it. This is
           also the doctrine in several of the United States. In
           other States, the doctrine of the civil law prevails,
           which is, that a navigable river is a river capable of
           being navigated, in the common sense of the term.
           --Kent. --Burrill.
           [1913 Webster] -- {Nav"i*ga*ble*ness}, n. --
           {Nav"i*ga*bly}, adv.
           [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  navigable
       adj : able to be sailed on or through safely; "navigable waters";
             "a navigable channel"

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  NAVIGABLE. Capable of being navigated. 
       2. In law, the term navigable is applied to the sea, to arms of the 
  sea, and to rivers in which the tide flows and reflows. 5 Taunt. R. 705; S. 
  C. Eng. Com. Law Rep. 240; 5 Pick. R. 199; Ang. Tide Wat. 62; 1 Bouv. Inst. 
  n. 428. 
       3. In North Carolina; 1 M'Cord, R. 580; 2 Dev. R. 30; 3 Dev. R. 59; and 
  in Pennsylvania; 2 Binn. R. 75; 14 S. & R. 71; the navigability of a river 
  does not depend upon the ebb and flow of the tide, but a stream navigable by 
  sea vessels is a navigable river. 
       4. By the common law, such rivers as are navigable in the popular sense 
  of the word, whether the tide ebb and flow in them or not, are public 
  highways. Ang. Tide Wat. 62; Ang. Wat. Courses, 205 1 Pick. 180; 5 Pick. 
  199; 1 Halst. 1; 4 Call, 441: 3 Blackf. 136. Vide Arm of the sea; Reliction; 
  River.