different between reliable vs first-rate

English

Etymology

From Scottish raliabill, itself from to rely + -able

Pronunciation

• enPR: r?-l???-b?l, IPA^(key): /???la??b?l/
• Rhymes: -a??b?l

Adjective

reliable (comparative more reliable, superlative most reliable)

1. Suitable or fit to be relied on; worthy of dependence, reliance or trust; dependable, trustworthy
   • 1855, Andrews Norton, Internal Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels

     a reliable witness to the truth of the miracles

   • February 18, 1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Report on Mr. Pitt's Speech in Parliament of February 17, 1800, on the Continuance of the War with France (published in The Morning Post)

     the best means, and the most reliable pledge, of a higher object

   • According to General Livingston's humorous account, his own village of Elizabethtown was not much more reliable, being peopled in those agitated times by unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty-looking Tories, and very knavish Whigs.

2. (signal processing, of a communication protocol) Such that either a sent packet will reach its destination, even if it requires retransmission, or the sender will be told that it didn't

Synonyms

• secure
• dependable
• trustworthy
• trusty

Antonyms

• unreliable

Derived terms

• reliableness
• reliably
• semireliable

Related terms

• reliability
• reliance
• rely

Translations

See also

• Reliability on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Noun

reliable (plural reliables)

1. Something or someone reliable or dependable

   the old reliables

Translations

Anagrams

• Abrielle, Bellaire, lieberal

English

Noun

first-rate (plural first-rates)

1. (military, nautical, historical) A ship of the line in the British navy that had over 100 guns on three gun decks

Adjective

first-rate

1. (military, nautical, historical) Describing a ship of the line in the British navy that had over 100 guns on three gundecks.
2. (by extension) Exceptionally good.
   • 1867, Matthew Arnold, On the Study of Celtic Literature

     Our only first-rate body of contemporary poetry is the German.

Translations

See also

• second-rate
• third-rate
• fourth-rate