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inscrutable, a. (n.)|ɪnˈskruːtəb(ə)l|
[ad. late L. inscrūtābilis (Augustine, Hilary), f. in- (in-3) + scrūtārī, -āre, to search or examine thoroughly, to explore: see -able. Cf. F. inscrutable (15th c.).]
That cannot be searched into or found out by searching; impenetrable or unfathomable to investigation; quite unintelligible, entirely mysterious.
c1450tr. De Imitatione iii. lv. 131, I haue lerned herby to drede þin inscrutable iugement. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 32 b, The herte of man is inscrutable, and onely god knoweth it. 1602Warner Alb. Eng. xiii. lxxix. (1612) 327 O Essence more inscrutable, than all compaierd to it. 1661Cowley Verses & Ess., Cromwell (1669) 66 The inscrutable mysteries of Eternal Providence. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. vii. §26 You are a pair of inscrutable, unfathomable, fashionable philosophers. 1838–9Hallam Hist. Lit. II. ii. ii. §27. 77 The doctrine of the Trinity, which theologians agree to call inscrutable, but which they do not fail to define and analyse with the most confident dogmatism. 1870Disraeli Lothair liii, That countenance was always inscrutable. 1894H. Drummond Ascent Man 155 At the present moment the ultimate origin of Mind is as inscrutable a mystery as the origin of Life.
b. Rarely of things physical, as an abyss: Impenetrable, unfathomable.
1820Lamb Elia Ser. i. 2 Races Men, Deep holes, inscrutable cavities of the earth. 1858Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. I. 142 The guide..held his torch down into an inscrutable pit beneath our feet.
B. n. pl. Inscrutable things.
1663Spencer Prodigies (1665) 282 There are Mysteries in Religion, Depths in Providence, Inscrutables in Nature. 1704De Foe Storm i. 8 The Winds are some of those Inscrutables of Nature, in which humane Search has not yet been able to arrive at any Demonstration. |