inaccessible, a. (n.)
(ˌɪnækˈsɛsɪb(ə)l)
Also 6–7 erron. -able.
[a. F. inaccessible (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. late L. inaccessibilis, f. in- (in-3) + accessibilis accessible.]
1. That cannot be reached, entered, or got to; that cannot be scaled or penetrated.
| 1555 Eden Decades 253 The south partes..inaccessable by reason of great heate. 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1638) 281 The desperat danger..in climbing the inaccessible mountain. 1610 Shakes. Temp. ii. i. 37 Vninhabitable, and almost inaccessible. 1718 Lady M. W. Montagu Let. to Abbé Conti 31 July, The harbour..[is] inaccessible almost six months in the year. 1846 Grote Greece i. xvii. (1862) II. 433 Its inaccessible acropolis defied them. |
2. fig. That one cannot come into personal or close relations with; not open to advances or influence, unapproachable.
| 1583 Stubbes Anat. Abus. i. (1879) 35 The Lord our God, a spiritual..substance, incomprehensible, immensurable, and inaccessible. a 1665 J. Goodwin Filled w. the Spirit (1867) 431 Fortify the spirit..of a man, to make it inaccessible unto..cares and fears. 1781 Gibbon Decl. & F. xxxiv. (1869) II. 265 This savage hero was not inaccessible to pity. 1896 ‘M. Field’ Attila i. 19 Always inaccessible To any suitor. |
† 3. (tr. Gr. ἄαπτος.) ‘Not to be touched, resistless, invincible.’ Obs.
| c 1611 Chapman Iliad i. 550 Curb your tongue in time, lest all the Gods..Too few be and too weak to help thy punish'd insolence, When my inaccessible hands shall fall on thee. |
B. n. That which is inaccessible. rare.
| 1812 Keatinge (title) Eidometrian Local, Victorial, and Military, for Inaccessibles. |