improbable, a.
(ɪmˈprɒbəb(ə)l)
[ad. L. improbābil-is, f. im- (im-2) + probābilis probable, likely: cf. F. improbable (1611 in Cotgr.).]
1. a. Not probable; not likely to be true; not easy to believe; unlikely.
| 1598 Florio, Improbabile, that cannot be prooued, improbable. 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 90 They pleaded against the most Christian Queene, that her pretention was improbable. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. iii. iv. 141 If this were plaid vpon a stage now, I could condemne it as an improbable fiction. 1710 Steele & Addison Tatler No. 254 ¶2 Were they not so well attested, [they] would appear altogether improbable. 1770 Junius Lett. xxxix. 193, I think it was highly improbable. 1860 Tyndall Glac. ii. xxx. 407, I agree..in regarding the explanation as improbable. |
b. Qualifying a clause, usually introduced by it.
| 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 30 Though it bee improbable that there should be any want of waters. 1674 tr. Scheffer's Lapland 24 It is very improbable that so many Christian Kings should take no care of propagating their Religion. 1790 Paley Horæ Paul. Rom. i. 11 It is in the highest degree improbable that it should have been the effect of contrivance and design. 1836 Macaulay Ess., Temple (1887) 448 When two armies fight, it is not improbable that one of them will be very soundly beaten. Mod. That he will succeed is highly improbable. |
c. With complement. rare.
| 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. viii. §179 Nor was the design improbable to succeed. 1654–66 Ld. Orrery Parthenissa (1676) 241 His Love could not be more improbable of success than Perolla's had been. |
2. In pregnant sense: Unlikely to ‘do’, suit, etc. Also, that does not ‘look the part’.
| 1659 Hammond On Ps. civ. 16–18 And that in the most improbable soile. 1958 Times 18 Apr. 11/7 An immense arched building of blue painted woods decorated with an improbable metal dove. Ibid. 14 May 15/1 As if it were miraculous that this gentle and improbable individual should exist at all. |
Hence imˈprobableness, improbability.
| 1727 in Bailey vol. II. |