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‖ impayable, a.
(ɪmˈpeɪəb(ə)l, Fr. ɛ̃pɛjabl)
[a. F. impayable, f. im- (im-2) + payer (in OF.) to appease, satisfy, (mod.F.) to pay. Used in ME.; in mod. use often treated as French.]
†1. Implacable, unappeasable. Obs.
a1340Hampole Psalter lxxxvii. 7 Impayable semes þi wraith.
2. That cannot be paid or discharged.
1797S. J. Pratt in Monthly Rev. XXIII. 60 Impayable obligations. 1843Ld. Houghton Let. in Wemyss Reid Life I. 300, I have mooted..the subject of the payment of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland (which D'Orsay says is ‘impayable’).
‖3.
a. Beyond price, priceless, invaluable.
b. colloq. Going beyond ordinary limits; ‘beyond anything’ (‘extraordinaire, très-plaisant, très-bizarre’ Littré).
1818Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 29, I must send you some of her notes, for they are impayable. 1823Scott Quentin D. Introd., The cheese, the fruits, the salad..and the delicious white wine, each in their way were impayables. 1906G. Meredith Let. 23 Nov. (1970) III. 1579 His [sc. Whistler's] tales of his student life in Paris..were impayable. 1954P. Bottome Against Whom? xxiii. 177 As a patient, she is unsatisfactory..as a girl she is impayable! |