irredeemable, a. (n.)
(ɪrɪˈdiːməb(ə)l)
[ir-2.]
A. adj.
1. a. Incapable of being redeemed or bought back.
Of Government annuities: Not terminable by repayment of the sum originally paid by the annuitant. irredeemable debenture (see quot. 1965).
| 1609 Skene Reg. Mag. Table 105 Gif ane pley is anent lands, quhither they be redemable, or irredemable, ane warrant may be called. 1732 Gentl. Mag. II. 709 There was 1,200,000l. due to the Bank, 2,000,000l. to the East India Company, and the irredeemable Annuities, being about as much as both. 1742 Ld. Hardwicke in Mod. Rep. IX. 278 If this had been land which had been mortgaged, the defendants could not have held it irredeemable without coming into this court for a foreclosure. 1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) II. 125 If a mortgage becomes irredeemable by this statute, it will remain so in the hands of an assignee. 1820 G. G. Carey Funds 17 The debt..for which annuities have been granted for a limited period is called the Irredeemable debt. 1855 J. D. Maclaren in Mem. (1861) 245 Time is irredeemable. 1900 Daily News 3 July 2/5, {pstlg}800,000 in Four-and-a Half per Cent. Irredeemable Mortgage Debenture stock at {pstlg}108. 1965 Perry & Ryder Thomson's Dict. Banking (ed. 11) 317/1 Irredeemable debenture, a debenture which does not contain any provision for repayment of the principal money. Even if irredeemable, it falls to be paid upon the company going into liquidation. |
b. Of paper currency: For which the issuing authority does not undertake ever to pay coin; not convertible into cash.
| 1837 D. Webster in Niles' Weekly Reg. 6 May 155/3, I abhor paper; that is to say irredeemable paper, paper that may not be converted into gold or silver at the will of the holder. a 1850 J. C. Calhoun Wks. I. 362 It left the country nearly without any currency, except irredeemable bank notes. 1866 H. Phillips Amer. Paper Curr. II. 82 All such bills not presented by a certain reasonable time..should be forever after irredeemable. 1879 Lubbock Addr. Pol. & Educ. ii. 28 Those who regard an unlimited and irredeemable paper currency as a panacea for all financial evils. |
2. fig. That admits of no release or change of state; absolute, fixed, hopeless.
| 1839 Poe Fall House of Usher Wks. 1864 I. 295 An air of stern, deep, and irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all. 1855 Tennyson Maud ii. i. 22 He..Wrought for his house an irredeemable woe. |
3. Beyond redemption; irreclaimable; thoroughly depraved.
| a 1834 Coleridge Notes Lear in Lit. Rem. (1836) II. 196 The Steward..the only character of utter irredeemable baseness in Shakspeare. 1892 Columbus (O.) Disp. 1 Sept., They are irredeemable in their thriftlessness. |
B. n. † a. An irredeemable annuity. Obs.
| 1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5877/3 That for the Redeemables and Irredeemables subscribed..no Stock be allowed but in even 5l. |
b. Anything that is irredeemable; spec. an irredeemable debenture.
| 1904 Daily Chron. 6 Feb. 3/2 The redemption of the irredeemable by woman's sweet and subtle influence the author has spared us. 1952 Economist 30 Aug. 514/1 Prices of most stocks at their lowest for twenty years, with irredeemables offering flat yields ranging up to..43/4 per cent. 1967 Ibid. 18 Nov. 785/2 The main effect..would eventually be felt by the long end of the market, especially by the irredeemables. 1973 Daily Tel. 24 Nov. 27/4 Most of the irredeemables return over 12 p.c. on income. |
Hence irredeemaˈbility, irreˈdeemableness, ‘the quality of being not redeemable’ (Webster, 1828).