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unaˈpproachable, a. (and n.)
[un-1 7 b and 5 b.]
1. Of things or places: That cannot be approached; inaccessible.
1581A. Gilby Test. 12 Patriarchs 28 We went to a strong walled, and vnapprochable Citie..whiche threatened to kill vs. 1583Golding Calvin on Deut. xxii. 130 To the ende that wee shoulde learne to be humble and to know that hee dwelleth in vnapprochable light. 1625K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis iii. vii. 175 The Hill is unapproachable toward the Sea-side. 1685Boyle High Veneration §6. 5 God..is said to inhabite an unapproachable Light, which humane Speculations cannot penetrate. 1742Young Nt. Th. ix. 850 He resides above them all, In glory's unapproachable recess. 1816Scott Old Mort. xliii, All alone, and in a place of almost unapproachable seclusion. 1891Farrar Darkn. & Dawn l, There were districts in which the heat was so intense that they were unapproachable.
fig.1686tr. Chardin's Trav. Persia 51 Which sort of Policy, having neither Art nor Principles, was as it were unapproachable.
2. That cannot be approached in confidence or intimacy.
1848Dickens Dombey liii, Mr. Dombey is unapproachable by any one, and his state of mind is haughty, rash, unreasonable, and ungovernable, now. 1865― Mut. Fr. iii. viii, All such things she would hear discussed, as we..in our unapproachable magnificence never hear them. 1904L. Creighton Life Bp. Creighton vi. I. 158 The fisherfolk..had..the most imagination, and the hinds were the most unapproachable.
3. Beyond the reach of rivalry; matchless.
1831Carlyle Sart. Res. iii. xi, The epithet schneidermässig (tailor-like) betokens an otherwise unapproachable degree of pusillanimity. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. i. 68 Out of the illuminations arose those paintings which remain unapproached and unapproachable in their excellence. 1871E. F. Burr Ad Fidem xiv. 280 A sermon of unapproachable eloquence, and pathos.
4. absol. as n. One who, or that which, cannot be approached or equalled.
1800Coleridge Piccolom. iii. i, We shall view The Unapproachable glide out in splendour. 1821Shelley Sonn. Byron 6 A worm whose life may share A portion of the unapproachable. 1886Academy 22 May 357/3 One or two [translations] from Heine come as near to the unapproachable as can fairly be expected.
Hence unaˈpproachableness, -ably adv.
1727Bailey (vol. II), Inaccessibleness, *unapproachableness. 1825Eng. Life II. 82 He became resolutely silent and did not attempt to overcome his unapproachableness. 1874L. Carr J. Gwynne I. iii. 94 The unapproachableness of the disdainful governess.
1846Worcester, *Unapproachably, so as not to be approached. Dr. Allen. 1863Ld. Lytton Ring Amasis I. 36 The habitual consciousness of an unapproachably high social position. 1890‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right (1899) 177/2 The illustrious Jake Challerson, unapproachably apparelled, redolent of fabulous wealth. |