| 释义 |
unˈworkable, a.
[un-1 7 b.]
1. a. Not workable; not capable of being worked, put into operation or practice, etc.
Freq. from c 1880.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 984 The mine is rendered unworkable until..fresh air is introduced. 1861Mill Repr. Govt. vii. 152 Some profess to think the plan unworkable. 1869A. Macdonald Love, Law & Theol. vi. 102 Lord Aberdeen's Act is quite unworkable. 1887W. S. S. Tyrwhitt New Chum in Bush v. 84 To prevent his run being rendered unworkable by having the best parts of it taken from him.
b. Of ships: Unmanageable.
1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxiii. (1856) 186 She had split her rudder-post so as to make her unworkable. 1885Athenæum 5 Dec. 726/3 The soldiers were untrained..and the ships unworkable.
c. Impossible to manage, direct, control, etc., on account of size, numbers, or lack of coherence.
1862‘Shirley’ (J. Skelton) Nugæ Crit. ix. 426 An un⁓disciplined and unworkable rabble. 1874Morley Compromise 83 The participation of large numbers of people..immediately becomes unworkable. 1895E. Owen Wks. G. Edwards p. xiii, The large and unworkable parish of Wrexham. 1896Baden-Powell Matabele Campaign v, We have broken up the original..Force as an unworkable and rather overpaid organization.
2. Of materials: Incapable of being worked upon or wrought into shape.
1854H. Miller Sch. & Schm. iii. 57 The white stone..is a beautiful though unworkable rock. 1867W. W. Smyth Coal & Coal-mining 47 Of the measures..the upper half contains only a few unworkable beds. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. II. 163/2 Alpaca wool..laid aside..as useless, un⁓workable material.
fig.1856R. A. Vaughan Mystics ix. i. II. 134 Mystics imperfectly subservient—unworkable raw material, and as such flung into the fire.
Hence unˈworkableness; unˈworkably adv.
1877Morley Crit. Misc. Ser. ii. 60 The absolute unworkableness of the new constitution. 1879Contemp. Rev. Oct. 290 The unworkableness of the various systems proposed. 1927C. Hollis Amer. Heresy 164 A plan, unworkably complicated. 1972W. A. Pantin Oxford Life iii. 25 As late as 1850 some people thought that a Congregation which might amount to over 100 would be unworkably large. |