irresolvable, a.
(ɪrɪˈzɒlvəb(ə)l)
[ir-2.]
Not resolvable.
1. Incapable of being resolved or solved; insoluble.
| 1660 tr. Amyraldus' Treat. conc. Relig. iii. xi. 535 A thing full of spinous questions and irresolvable difficulties. 1708 Brit. Apollo No. 8. 1/2 Your Question is irresolvable. 1883 A. Barratt Phys. Metempiric 180 This suggests a question which..is irresolvable by Metaphysic. |
2. That cannot be resolved into elements or parts; that cannot be analysed.
irresolvable nebulæ, nebulæ that cannot be resolved into stars by telescopic examination.
| 1785 Herschel in Phil. Trans. LXXV. 262 The three nebulosities: viz. the resolvable, the coloured but irresolvable, and a tincture of the milky kind. 1869 Contemp. Rev. XI. 332 Is not he a spiritualist, who..believes consciousness to be a primary irresolvable fact? 1881 Proctor Poetry Astron. xii. 432 Irresolvable nebulae really consisting of stars, but too remote for telescopic mastery. 1899 Westm. Gaz. 8 Aug. 3/3 That the Reality of the Ego is a datum of the individual consciousness, irresolvable into more primitive elements. |
3. That cannot be disentangled; inextricable.
| 1886 Athenæum 13 Feb. 238/3 The countless leaves and the irresolvable intricacy of the willow-boughs overhanging the water. |
Hence irresolvaˈbility, irreˈsolvableness.
| 1838 Nichol Archit. Heav. (1851) 122 Such a fluid..could not..be distinguished from unresolved clusters of stars, either by the nature of its light, or the simple fact of its irresolvability. 1847 Craig, Irresolvableness. |