insufferable

English

Etymology

in- + sufferable

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): [ɪnˈsʌfɹəbl̩]
  • (US) enPR: ĭn-sŭf'ər-ə-bəl, IPA(key): /ɪnˈsʌfɚəbəl/, [ɪnˈsʌfɹəbl̩]

Adjective

insufferable (comparative more insufferable, superlative most insufferable)

  1. Not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure.
    • 1749, [John Cleland], Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: Printed [by Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] [], OCLC 731622352:
      kept up by the pain I had endur'd in the course of the engagement, from the insufferable size of his weapon, tho' it was not as yet in above half its length.
    • c. 1795, Jane Austen, Lady Susan, ch. 22:
      This is insufferable! My dearest friend, I was never so enraged before,and must relieve myself by writing to you. . . . Guess my astonishment, and vexation.
    • 1894, Henry James, The Coxon Fund, ch. 4:
      Saltram was incapable of keeping the engagements which, after their separation, he had entered into with regard to his wife, a deeply wronged, justly resentful, quite irreproachable and insufferable person.
    • 1913, Edith Wharton, The Custom of the Country, ch. 13:
      Marvell . . . thought Peter a bore in society and an insufferable nuisance on closer terms.
    • 2011 June 7, "Chaos in Syria," Time:
      The oppressive heat has become insufferable in Syria — and as the temperature climbs, emotions get harder to contain.

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