Dictionary

unputdownable en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• /ˌənˌpʊtˈdaʊnəb(ə)l/ (General-American)
• /(ˌ)ʌnpʊtˈdaʊnəb(ə)l/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

From un- + put down + -able.

Meanings

1. (informal) Of a person, etc.: difficult or impossible to put down (in various senses).
   • Only someone with enormous unputdownable optimism would ever have embarked on a project like this. 1991, Andrew Yule, Losing the Light: Terry Gilliam and the Munchausen Saga, New York, N.Y.: Applause Books, →ISBN, page 56:
   • I have known an operating surgeon, because he possessed a medical title, to be elected physician to a county hospital. I have known the surgical staff for years refuse to recognize this irregular. Yet, after all, when he became popular and unputdownable, giving in their isolated adhesions to the conqueror, not because they had altered their sentiments, but that their pockets taught them, like nature, to abhor a vacuum. 1842 June 17, Robert Hull, “On the Division of Medical Labour”, in The London Medical Gazette, being a Weekly Journal of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences, volume II (New Series; volume XXX overall), number 759, London: Printed for Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 474, column 2:
   • Finally, we appeal to all right-minded playgoers. Let them remember that they have got tongues, and that a vigorous, unmistakeable, un-put-downable hiss is, in a theatre, a potent instrument. 1861, The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine: An Illustrated Journal, Combining Practical Information, Instruction, and Amusement, London: S[amuel] O[rchart] Beeton, →OCLC, page 303:
   • But she also remembers Phillips as someone who ‘people liked to be a bit scornful of, the kind of man they would like to put down, although he was unputdownable’. 2005, Mike Hally, Electronic Brains: Stories from the Dawn of the Computer Age, London: Granta, →ISBN:
   • Des Capper blinked, as if he has been hit with a dictionary. But he was unputdownable, at the same time giving the impression that he was registering all the snubs. 1989, Robert Barnard, Death and the Chaste Apprentice (Collins Crime Club), London: Collins, →ISBN; republished as Death and the Chaste Apprentice, New York, N.Y.: Scribner, 2014, →ISBN:
   • [W]e're unputdownable, like Alcayaga said up 'til last night, and now here we all are happy, unputdownable, dearest old skinny bosom-buddy, you've collapsed on us so early in the morning like a sack of spuds, [...] 1985, Antonio Skármeta, translated by Malcolm Coad, I Dreamt the Snow was Burning, London: Readers International, →ISBN, page 60:
2. (informal, specifically) Of a book or other written work: so captivating or engrossing that one cannot bear to stop reading it.
   • Since "Next" is one of Mr. [Michael] Crichton's more un-put-downable novels, the reader may experience some frustration. It's tempting to stop and look up each of the genetic, legal and ethical aberrations described here in order to see how wild a strain of science fiction is afoot. Save a step. Just believe this: Oddity after oddity in "Next" checks out, and many are replays of real events. 2006 November 28, Janet Maslin, “Geneticists gone wild. What’s the world to do?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 Jan 2018:
   • I found it absolutely (or almost) unputdownable and at the same time as complete a waste of time in a sense as one of [Erle Stanley] Gardner's Perry Mason stories, which I also find unputdownable. 1947 January 5, Raymond Chandler, “To Charles Morton”, in Frank MacShane, editor, Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, published 1981, →ISBN:
   • Now begins the allurement of the ‘unputdownable’ text. But is it unputdownable? The author must spin out and embroider the theme of a demoniacally possessed girl for all that it is worth. 1975, The University of Windsor Review, Windsor, Ont.: University of Windsor Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14:
   • [James] Lees-Milne does not always show himself off in a good light, and he is by turns self-aggrandising, cruel, dismissive, mean-spirited and totally un-put-downable (though there will be occasions when you want to throw his books across the room with some force). 2013 January 21, Alan Titchmarsh, “Keeping a diary is hard work”, in The Daily Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:
   • To make unputdownable an intricate, technical account of the anatomies of worms, and other inconspicuous denizens of a half-billion-year-old sea, is a literary tour-de-force. But the theory that [Stephen Jay] Gould wrings out of his fossils is a sorry mess. 1990 February 25, Richard Dawkins, “Wonderful Life by Stephen J. Gould [book review]”, in The Sunday Telegraph, London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2005:

Forms

Antonyms

put-downable · putdownable

Relateds

page-turner

Synonyms

page-turning

Translations (9)

sh ne može se ispustiti iz ruku (difficult or impossible to put down) · kmr xweragir (difficult or impossible to put down) · kmr berxweder (difficult or impossible to put down) · kmr neşkê (difficult or impossible to put down) · hu letehetetlen (of a book, etc.: so captivating or engrossing that one cannot bear to stop reading it) · sh ne može se ispustiti iz ruku (of a book, etc.: so captivating or engrossing that one cannot bear to stop reading it) · el ενδιαφέρων (of a book, etc.: so captivating or engrossing that one cannot bear to stop reading it) · et käestpandamatu (of a book, etc.: so captivating or engrossing that one cannot bear to stop reading it) · kmr destjêvenebar (of a book, etc.: so captivating or engrossing that one cannot bear to stop reading it)