Unattainable
[ʌnə'teɪnəb(ə)l] or [,ʌnə'tenəbl]
Definition
adj. beyond one's reach.—n. Unattain′ableness.—adv. Unattain′ably.
Checked by Harlan
Examples
- Now, was there some one in the hopeless unattainable distance? Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- Or, she would casually issue the order, 'Throw in a handful--' of something entirely unattainable. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- They nearly shook my mind; relief was so hopeless, redress so unattainable. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- But the first boy seems to me a mighty creature, dwelling afar off, whose giddy height is unattainable. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Yet there is nothing absolutely unattainable in world law and world justice. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- His duties would be established, but the wife who was to share, and animate, and reward those duties, might yet be unattainable. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- Here, even the necessary accommodation of two sitting-rooms and four bed-rooms seemed unattainable. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- It was perhaps her very manner of holding herself aloof that appealed to his collector's passion for the rare and unattainable. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- Since the goal of perfection, the standard of development, is very far away, it is so beyond us that, strictly speaking, it is unattainable. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- In all material things the year 1913 seems now, to a European at least, a year of amazing and unattainable plenty. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Checked by Harlan