unpracticableadj.

1650 J. Dury Just Re-proposals 23 Nor may I..refuse to follow the light which I have.., so far as it is practicable; because I want some light in some circumstantiall cases, which may fall in..to be unpracticable.

1673 Remarques on Humours of Town 52 They have made Love..unpracticable to the World.

1692 R. Bentley Boyle Lect. i. 18 Such unpracticable Conditions as these.

1702 Clarendon's Hist. Rebellion I. iii. 195 Such Objections..as render'd it [sc. the proposition] Ridiculous and Unpracticable.

1776 A. Wight Considerations Late Act for prohibiting Commerc. Intercourse with Rebellious Colonies 15 It will ever be found an unpracticable thing, so far at once to change the fixed manners and habits of two or three millions of people.

1890 Dawn 2 162 How long will private capitalists and a capitalist-owned press delude people into fancying Socialism unpracticable?

1949 A. C. Walshaw Heat Engines (ed. 3) xvi. 336 The Carnot cycle is unpracticable both for steam and internal combustion engines.

2000 Behaviour 137 910 We ignored nesting sites under the wooden boards at the bottom, because it was unpracticable to systematically check for nests there.