| 释义 |
unˈspeakable, a., n., and adv.
[un-1 7 b and 5 b.]
1. Incapable of being expressed in words; inexpressible, indescribable, ineffable.
a1400Hampole's Wks. (1895) I. 199 Þe vnspekeabill & þe vnmesurabill charite, bothe of þe ffadire and of þe sone. a1425tr. Arderne's Treat. Fistula, etc. 37 It may neuer be cured..but if it plese god..for to help wiþ his vnspekeable vertu. c1445Pecock Donet 84 A þing..fer aboue alle creaturis speche vnspekable. 1534More Treat. Passion Wks. 1346/1 It is chaunged by an vnspeakeable woorking, although it seme bread to vs that be weake. a1586Sidney Arcadia i. i, The flocke of unspeakeable vertues laid up..in that best builded folde. 1615W. Lawson Country Housew. Gard. (1626) 6 It is vnspeakable, what fatnesse is brought to low grounds by Inundations of waters. 1675Traherne Chr. Ethics 204 Those bodies are superadded, certainly for unspeakable and most glorious ends. 1754Connoisseur No. 6 ⁋4, I had the unspeakable mortification to see my favours sometimes not inserted. 1841W. Spalding Italy & It. Isl. II. 57 The laws and the system of society conspired together to work unspeakable evils. 1871Morley Carlyle in Crit. Misc. Ser. i. 216 He had the unspeakable advantage of being..respectable.
absol.1831Carlyle Sart. Res. ii. ix, In what words..[can we] speak even afar-off of the unspeakable?
b. spec. Indescribably or inexpressibly bad or objectionable.
Freq. of ‘the Turk’, after quot. 1876. Also absol.
1831Carlyle in Westm. Rev. July 6 How they sailed..into Paynim land; fought with that unspeakable Turk, King Machabol. 1843― Past & Pr. i. iii, How ye came among us, in your cruel armed blindness, ye unspeakable County Yeomanry! 1876― Let. in Mem. (1881) II. 311 The unspeakable Turk should be immediately struck out of the question, and the country left to honest European guidance. 1896Advance (Chicago) 30 Jan. 153/1 We were..even more guilty than the Unspeakable himself. 1902Crosland (title), The Unspeakable Scot.
c. n. An ineffable being.
1843Carlyle Past & Pr. iii. xv, Through all thy..melancholy Business and Cant, there does shine the presence of a Primeval Unspeakable.
2. Incapable of being spoken or uttered; that may not be spoken.
1568H. B. tr. P. Martyr, Ep. Rom. 224 They are called vnspeakeable sighes, for that we speake not expressedlye what the spirite asketh. 1611Bible 2 Cor. xii. 4 He..heard vnspeakable wordes, which it is not lawfull for a man to vtter. 1770Glover Leonidas (ed. 5) x. 574 Leonidas, whose looks Declar'd unspeakable applause.
3. U.S. Unwilling or unable to speak.
1888Advance (Chicago) 29 Nov., The distinguished but unspeakable witness. 1890Lowell Lett. (1894) II. 465 My dog..looks up at me as who should say, ‘You are become unspeakable as one of us, poor old fellow!’
4. adv. Unspeakably, indescribably.
1635E. Pagitt Christianogr. 34 Beyond the Land of Cathaie, which they prayse to be civill, and unspeakable rich. 1657Baxter Call to Unconverted (1660) 59 How certainly and unspeakable happy you may be if you will.
Hence unˈspeakableness.
a1586Sidney Arcadia i. xi, The unspeakablenes of his griefe. 1657J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 54 That we may rather conceive the unspeakablenesse then the untruth of the relation. 1691Bunyan (title), The Greatness of the Soul, and unspeakableness of the loss thereof. 1963B. Friedan Feminine Mystique viii. 182 After the loneliness of war and the unspeakableness of the bomb,..women as well as men sought the comforting reality of home and children. |