I.that can contain or hold much, wide, large, spacious, roomy, capacious (in poets and in post-Aug. prose freq.; in Cic. perh. only once, and then trop; v. infra).
I. Lit.: mundus, * Lucr. 6, 123: “conchae,” Hor. C. 2, 7, 22: “urna,” id. ib. 3, 1, 16; Ov. M. 3, 172: “capaciores scyphos,” Hor. Epod. 9, 33: “pharetram,” Ov. M. 9, 231: “putei,” id. ib. 7, 568: “urbs,” id. ib. 4, 439: “ripae,” id. Am. 3, 6, 19: “uterus,” Plin. 10, 33, 49, § 93: “portus,” id. 4, 7, 12, § 26: “spatiosa et capax domus,” Plin. Ep. 7, 27, 5: “villa usibus capax,” id. ib. 2, 17, 4: “forma capacissima,” Quint. 1, 10, 40: “moles,” Tac. A. 2, 21.—With gen.: “circus capax populi,” Ov. A. A. 1, 136: “cibi vinique capacissimus,” Liv. 9, 16, 13: “flumen onerariarum navium capax,” Plin. 6, 23, 26, § 99; 12, 1, 5, § 11: “magnae sedis insula haud capax est,” Curt. 4, 8, 2.—
II. Trop.
A. Capacious, susceptible, capable of, good, able, apt, fit for: Demosthenes non semper implet aures meas: ita sunt avidae et capaces, etc., * Cic. Or. 29, 104: “ingenium,” great, Ov. M. 8, 533: “animi ad praecepta,” id. ib. 8, 243: “animo majora capaci,” id. ib. 15, 5: “capax est animus noster,” Sen. Ep. 92, 30.—With gen.: “animal mentis capacius altae (i.e. homo),” Ov. M. 1, 76: “imperii,” Tac. H. 1, 49; cf. id. A. 1, 13: “aetas honorum nondum capax,” id. H. 4, 42: “molis tantae mens,” id. A. 1,11: secreti, that can keep or conceal, Plin. Ep. 1, 12, 7: “capacia bonae spei pectora,” Curt. 8, 13, 11: “magnorum operum,” id. 6, 5, 29: “ingenium omnium bonarum artium capacissimum,” Sen. Contr. 2, praef. § “4: cujusque clari operis capacia ingenia,” Vell. 1, 16, 2: “bonum et capax recta discendi ingenium,” id. 2, 29, 5: “laboris ac fidei,” id. 2, 127, 3: “ingenia fecunda et totius naturae capacissima,” Plin. 2, 78, 80, § 190: “doli,” fit, suitable for, Dig. 43, 4, 1.—
B. In the Lat. of the jurists (cf. capio, II. F.), that has a right to an inheritance, Dig. 34, 3, 29.—Adv.: căpācĭter , Aug. Trin. 11, 2.