Inscrutable
[ɪn'skruːtəb(ə)l] or [ɪn'skrʊtəbl]
Definition
(a.) Unsearchable; incapable of being searched into and understood by inquiry or study; impossible or difficult to be explained or accounted for satisfactorily; obscure; incomprehensible; as, an inscrutable design or event.
Checker: Sumner
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. Undiscoverable, unsearchable, hidden, mysterious, past comprehension, above comprehension, not to be understood.
Inputed by Doris
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Unintelligible, untraceable, mysterious, unfathomable, profound, insolvable,impenetrable, hidden
ANT:Obvious, self-evident, familiar, intelligible, explainable
Checked by Hank
Definition
adj. that cannot be scrutinised or searched into and understood: inexplicable.—ns. Inscrutabil′ity Inscrut′ableness.—adv. Inscrut′ably.
Edited by Hugh
Examples
- For an hour or more he was at work, returning at last with his feet heavy with snow and his features as inscrutable as ever. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
- Sick people often have fancies inscrutable to ordinary attendants, and Caroline had one which even her tender nurse could not at first explain. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- I still stood absolutely dumfoundered at what appeared to me her miraculous self-possession and most inscrutable hypocrisy, when the cook entered. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- His eyes were inscrutable and laughing. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Mrs Wilfer thanked him with a magnanimous sigh, and again became an unresisting prey to that inscrutable toothache. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- She looked at him with a long, slow inscrutable look, as he stood before her negligently, the water standing in beads all over his skin. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- He is a quiet, inscrutable fellow; as most of those Indians are. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- And yet the motives of women are so inscrutable. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- He is such an inscrutable fellow that I never quite know what to make of him. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- It pleased Providence, for some inscrutable reason, to doom the race to bondage, ages ago; and we must not set up our opinion against that. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Edited by Hugh