Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use liable in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective

Liable means bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable. Example: “The surety is liable for the debt of his principal.”

Examples of liable by meaning

adjectiveBound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable.

  • The surety is liable for the debt of his principal.
  • The document states that despite its ongoing advancements, generative AI is liable to the United States’s current copyright principles, which take a strict stance on what material—human- or machine-made—qualifies for protection.2025 January 30, Tessa Solomon, “AI Art Lacking ‘Human Expression’ Cannot Be Copyrighted, US Officials Say”, in ARTnews

adjectiveSubject; susceptible; prone.

  • This crime is liable to imprisonment for life.
  • A man liable to heart disease.

adjectiveExposed to a certain contingency or causality, more or less probable.

  • Electronic devices are liable to malfunction when exposed to extreme heat.

adjectiveLikely.

  • Someone is liable to slip on your icy sidewalk.

More sentences with liable

  • Bequests and legacies are liable to be abated entirely or in proportion, upon a deficiency of assets.From the entry abate
  • After being found liable for the crash that killed several passengers, the captain of the downed airliner lost his wings.From the entry wings
  • The court found the injurer liable for damages.From the entry injurer
  • In many states, an act of arson that accidentally kills someone automatically makes the arsonist liable for felony murder.From the entry felony murder
  • Thus, we’re liable to spend the most energy on the least important decisions.2026 May 26, David Epstein, “The Real Meaning of "The Road Not Taken". It's not about rugged individualism”, in Range Widely [Substack…. From the entry satisficing
  • It was later developed to deter duelling by making seconds and doctors liable for murder.2016 October 31, Owen Bowcott, “Appeal court upholds 'joint enterprise' guilty verdicts”, in The Guardian. From the entry second
  • Not in the usual Discworldian sense, where those souls are liable to pop out just about anywhere.2016, Daniel Miori, “Cocking a Snook at Death and Getting Away with It: Does the Personification of Death Make It Less Scary?”, in Nicolas…. From the entry Discworldian
  • Anyone found participating in, or even attending, flapping races is liable to be warned off.2016, Gerald Hammond, The Language of Horse Racing, page 81. From the entry warn off
  • The whole contraption appears liable to spring apart at any moment.2012 April 21, Sydney Morning Herald, page 5. From the entry spring
  • When in panic I feared they, like fluttering pigeons, were liable to do anything.2011, Rahul Bhattacharya, chapter 7, in The Sly Company of People Who Care, London: Picador, →ISBN, page 86. From the entry crappo
  • To procure another's tort will render the procurer jointly liable in tort.2010, Hazel Carty, “Inducing Breach of Contract”, in An Analysis of the Economic Torts, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press…. From the entry tortfeasance
  • Tanjo's the best archer amongst us, but he's arrogant and liable to underjudge an opponent.2004, J. V. Jones, A Fortress of Grey Ice (Sword of Shadows; book two), page 268. From the entry underjudge
  • However, the other downstream state liable to be affected by China’s Irtysh extraction plans is Russia.2001, Central Asian Security: The New International Context, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 80. From the entry Irtysh
  • If you wait until later, your drivetrain is liable to misshift under the hard pedaling load.1990, Joe Kita, Bicycling Magazine's New Bike Owner's Guide, page 28. From the entry drivetrain
  • You go in there without enough men, you’re liable to end up takin’ a dirt nap.1989, Laurence Gonzales, The Still Point, “Anatomy of a Drug Bust”, ‘Two: Fort Harrison’, page 119. From the entry dirt nap
  • Parties responsible for the incurrence of overdrafts shall be held personally liable therefor.1977 October 10, Republic of the Philippines, “Presidential Decree No. 1177”, in Official Gazette, volume 73, number 41, Manila, →ISSN. From the entry incurrence
  • He is having fun with language and is liable to run out of bounds verbally.1962, California Journal of Elementary Education, volume 31, page 205. From the entry out of bounds
  • Besides forming new cores, arcs may also form branches, and "downstrikes" are liable to be particularly troublesome.1959, Electrical Times - Volume 135, page 355. From the entry downstrike
  • When you have a hundred francs in the world you are liable to the most craven panics.1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter III, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz…. From the entry indifferent
  • It was appendicitis of that insidious and misleading type to which children are particularly liable.1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards…. From the entry appendicitis
  • But you'll probably be liable to fits of it all your life,' Beetle concluded.1908 (date written), Rudyard Kipling, “Regulus”, in A Diversity of Creatures, London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1917, →OCLC, page…. From the entry berserk
  • Cows are also more liable to congestion of the lungs and to tuberculosis than are other cattle.1908, Charles Edward Green, D. Young, Encyclopædia of Agriculture. From the entry overclose
  • The wood is pale yellowish, often dark-hearted, close, dense, liable to split.1901, The Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain & Ireland, Volumes 16-17, page 226. From the entry dark-hearted
  • West Carolina has no such bar, and riding instructors are liable for actual damages caused by their negligence.2016, Michael H. Hoffheimer, Examples & Explanations for Conflict of Laws, →ISBN. From the entry West Carolina
  • Julycontinued its solar torment that Monday, with temperatures over thirty degrees Celsius and humidity liable to out-sweat a fish.2013, Hildred Billings, Kataomoi. From the entry outsweat
  • ModE dial flother 'swamp, a boggy place liable to overflow in wet seasons', very common in f.ns. in Northumberland, e.g.2007, [Journal of the] English Place-Name Society, volume 83, page 14. From the entry flother
  • "You take pictures in here and you're liable to get a rat in one of them!" "I should be so lucky.1988, Jack Kugelmass, editor, Between Two Worlds, Cornell University Press, page 311. From the entry one should be so lucky
  • He's liable to get himself kippered on something hairbrained.1985, Stephen Hunter, The Spanish Gambit. From the entry kipper
  • He said, “I admire your sand but I believe you will find I am not liable for such claims.1968, Charles Portis, True Grit. From the entry sand
  • Sheep with wool of a type to suit the locality and conditions are less liable to the appearance of gares.1956, E. Noel Roberts, The Theory and Practice of Breeding, page 192. From the entry gare
  • Michie’s wife is mediumistic and liable to be controlled.1921, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter 9, in The Wanderings of a Spiritualist, London: Hodder and Stoughton, pages 199–200. From the entry mediumistic
  • But she stanked upon a wuilkin one day in the chall, and after that she was always liable to quames.1901, Pearson's Magazine, volume 11, page 362. From the entry stank
  • This piece was liable to put the user in a state of disadvantage without proper precautions, but today Miss Celia had abandoned her unga-bunga playstyle.2023, Schuld (trans. Mikey N.), Min-Maxing My TRPG Build in Another World: Volume 5, unnumbered page. From the entry unga bunga
  • Without that non-dom status she could have been liable for more than £20m of UK taxes on these windfalls, it was reported.2022 October 24, Caroline Davies, “Spotlight on Rishi Sunak’s family as they prepare to enter No 10”, in The Guardian. From the entry non-dom

Meaning of liable

  1. adjective Bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable.
  2. adjective Subject; susceptible; prone.
  3. adjective Exposed to a certain contingency or causality, more or less probable.

Full definition of liable

Questions about liable in a sentence

How do you use liable in a sentence?
Liable is used as an adjective. For example: “The surety is liable for the debt of his principal.”
What is a short sentence with liable?
“A man liable to heart disease.”
What does liable mean?
Liable means bound or obliged in law or equity; responsible; answerable.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: liable (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use liable in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/liable. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.