inconsolable
/ɪnkənˈsəʊləb(ə)l
/adjective
(Of a person or their grief) not able to be comforted or alleviated: his widow, Jane, was inconsolable...
- The brothers comfort Precious when she's inconsolable, and rock her to sleep when she wakes up crying in the middle of the night.
- They were inconsolable; both died brokenhearted.
- Her grief-stricken sisters tried to help her but she was inconsolable.
Synonyms
heartbroken, broken-hearted, unable to be comforted, unable to be consoled, grief-stricken, prostrate with grief, beside oneself with grief, devastated, wretched, sick at heart, desolate, despairing, distraught, comfortless;
miserable, unhappy, sad
literary heartsick, dolorous
Derivatives
inconsolability
- It is this apparent sameness that lies at the root of the sorrow, the inconsolability, of the living, who want the world to bear its sorrows physically, to betray the signs of an existence that will never again be the same.
- He deeply respects Larkin's inconsolability in the face of the surest fact of all, but responds more vividly, in the end, to Yeats's visionary transformations.
- Such were the limits of their unifying inconsolability.
inconsolably
/ adverb ...- The screenwriter starts sobbing inconsolably, then asks, ‘What kind of maniac could do such terrible things?’
- Her aunt, Lillian, sobbed inconsolably as they all tried desperately to come to terms with a tragedy which has not just touched the local community but families, particularly mothers, right across the country.
- Quite unlike home, there are a number of other small children in the classroom, some of them sobbing inconsolably, and a few others screaming at the top of their little voices.
Origin
Late 16th century: from French, or from Latin inconsolabilis, from in- 'not' + consolabilis 'able to be consoled', from the verb consolari (see console1).