inexpressible, a. and n.
(ɪnɛkˈsprɛsɪb(ə)l)
[in-3.]
A. adj. That cannot be expressed in words; unutterable, unspeakable, indescribable. (Often as an emotional intensive: cf. ineffable.)
| 1625 Donne Serm. iii. 22 Thou shalt feele the Ioy of his third birth in thy soul most inexpressible this day. 1667 Milton P.L. viii. 113 Ere mid-day arriv'd In Eden, distance inexpressible By Numbers that have name. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 159 ¶8, I gazed with inexpressible Pleasure on these happy Islands. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. 224–5 It is with inexpressible concern, that I find myself called upon..to be the accuser of such a man. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. xxiii. 166 Its seclusion gives it an inexpressible charm. |
B. n.
1. Something inexpressible. (In quot. 1846 with punning allusion to next sense.)
| 1652 Benlowes Theoph. ii. vi. 24 Praise best doth Inexpressibles expresse. 1846 Mrs. Gore Eng. Char. (1852) 73 A pair of standard footmen seems to be the real pair of inexpressibles. |
2. pl. (colloq.) Breeches or trousers. (Orig. euphemistic: cf. ineffables, inexplicables, unmentionables.)
| 1790 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Rowland for Oliver Wks. 1795 II. 154 (Farmer) I've heard, that breeches, petticoats, and smock, Give to thy modest mind a grievous shock, And that thy brain (so lucky its device) Christ'neth them inexpressibles, so nice. 1793 Gibbon Let. 11 Nov. 1800 Helen Bedingfeld in Jerningham Lett. (1896) I. 196 A pair of old inexpressibles..contained seven thousand Guineas!..deposited in so vulgar a Garment. 1809 Farmers' Mag. X. 500 A fine lady can talk about her lover's inexpressibles, when she would faint to hear of his breeches. 1875 Spectator (Melbourne) 12 June 64/1 The episcopal inexpressibles..for obvious reasons will be unsuited to lay legs. |
Hence inexpressiˈbility, inexˈpressibleness, the quality of being inexpressible.
| 1727 Bailey vol. II, Inexpressibleness. 1826–7 De Quincey Lessing Wks. 1859 XIII. 249, I do not admit the inexpressibility of paternal grief. 1869 Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xxi. 1 Our joy should have some sort of inexpressibleness in it. |