| 释义 |
unˈtenable, a.
[un-1 7 b and 5 b.]
1. Incapable of being held against attack.
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. viii. §60 Having lain so long with such a strength before so vile and untenable a place, without reducing it. a1671Ld. Fairfax Mem. (1699) 9 In a council of war the Town was judged untenable. 1769Robertson Chas. V, iv. Wks. 1813 V. 418 That ill-provided and untenable fort. 1796Campaigns 1793–4, I. i. ix. 91 The post..was abandoned as untenable. 1844H. H. Wilson Brit. India II. 54 Measures were taken to render the position of the besiegers untenable. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 287 The fire of the Prussian artillery rendered the interior of the works..untenable.
b. fig. (Cf. sense 2.)
1692Dryden Juvenal (1697) p. lii, Casaubon..thinks it time to abandon a Post that was untenable. He acknowledges that Persius is obscure in some places. 1765Sterne Tr. Shandy viii. xxxiv, If there was any one post more untenable than the rest, he would be sure to throw himself into it. 1807Med. Jrnl. XVII. 534 An impartial retrospect..will..convince Mr. Dawson, that he has occupied untenable ground. 1880McCarthy Own Times lxiii. IV. 429 He withdrew from what he felt to be an untenable position.
c. Incapable of being occupied or retained.
1699Boyer Dict. Royal s.v., His new Lodgings were made in a Moment as untenable as the others. 1721Amherst Terræ Fil. No. 40 (1726) 211 Not content with..college⁓offices, they have lately found out a method of augmenting them with good livings, which, according to statutes and prescription, are untenable together. 1860Merc. Marine Mag. VII. 291 A ship could lay there in safety when Table bay would be untenable. 1883Stevenson Silverado Sq. 5 The site has proved untenable.
2. Incapable of being maintained or supported.
1650Fuller Pisgah ii. xiii. 268 A Tenet unteinable with truth. 1664H. More Apol. 507, I am..far from rejecting or condemning the Opinion of the Schools from being altogether untenable. 1724Waterland Farther Vindic. Christ's Divin. Introd., Their main Scheme appearing so gross, and so untenable, that they..are..ashamed to own it. 1835Thirlwall Greece iii. I. 78 A not untenable hypothesis. 1886Law Rep. 31 Chanc. Div. 365 The claim is of the most untenable description.
Hence unˈtenableness.
1833G. S. Faber Recapit. Apostasy 40 The untenableness of the various names..crudely propounded by the wantonness of expositorial licence. 1846Lewes Hist. Philos. IV. 95 The untenableness of the theory of innate ideas. |