unassailable en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˌʌnəˈseɪləbl̩/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English assailable English unassailable From un- + assailable.
Meanings
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Secure against attack; impregnable.
Yet in the number, I do know but One That vnaſſayleable holds on his Ranke, Vnfhak’d of Motion : and that I am he, Let me a little ſhew it, euen in this : That I was conſtant Cymber ſhould be baniſh’d, And conſtant do remaine to keepe him ſo.
1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 119, column 1:His recourse to written documents to make his discourse unassailable has created a virtually unalterable situation even as he is on the verge of being forced to “see through” Tartuffe.
1990, Larry W. Riggs, “Moliere’s “Poststructuralism”: Demolition of Transcendentalist Discourse in Le Tartuffe”, in Symposium: A Quarterly Journal in Modern Literatures, volume 44, number 1, →DOI, page 53:None of the processes, however, is either uniform or unassailable. The contradictions and distortions within any hegemonic discourse, as well as the discrepancies between it and the popular understandings of common sense, leave it ever vulnerable to penetration, criticism, and refusal.
1990, James Brow, “Notes on Community, Hegemony, and the Uses of the Past”, in Anthropological Quarterly, volume 63, number 1, George Washington U Institute for Ethnographic Research, →JSTOR, page 5:
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(broadly) Undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible.
She won the debate with her unassailable logic.
So the French National Railways have secured a record which is likely, one imagines, to remain unassailable for a long time to come.
1955 June, 'Mercury', “Over 200 Miles Per Hour”, in Railway Magazine, page 380:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most unassailable | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more unassailable | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |
Deriveds
unassailableness · unassailably
Synonyms
incontestable · invulnerable · impregnable · unopposable
Translations (24)
cs apodiktický (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · bg неопровержим (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · nl onbetwistbaar (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · fr inattaquable (secure against attack; impregnable) · fr incontestable (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · mk неприкосновен (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · cs nedobytný (secure against attack; impregnable) · ga do-ionsaithe (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · ga dosháraithe (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · de unangreifbar (secure against attack; impregnable) · es incontestable (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · cs nenapadnutelný (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · bg непристъпен (secure against attack; impregnable) · ru неопровержи́мый (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · nl onaantastbaar (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · ga dobhréagnaithe (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · es inexpugnable (secure against attack; impregnable) · nl onneembaar (secure against attack; impregnable) · pt incontestável (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · pl bezsporny (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · ru неприступный (secure against attack; impregnable) · fr indéniable (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible) · fr inexpugnable (secure against attack; impregnable) · de unanfechtbar (undeniable, incontestable or incontrovertible)