Ungovernable

a. (and sb.). [UN-¹ 7 b.] That cannot be governed; uncontrollable.

  a.  Of persons (or animals).

1673.  [R. Leigh], Transp. Reh., 112. Such ungovernable cattle as conscientious savages.

1680.  Dryden, Ovid’s Ep., Pref. (ad fin.). So wild and ungovernable a poet cannot be translated literally.

1725.  De Foe, Voy. Round World (1840), 312. The fellows were so rude, so ungovernable and unbounded in their hunting after gold.

1768.  Boswell, Corsica, ii. (ed. 2), 135. A lawless and ungovernable rabble of banditti.

1829.  Scott, Anne of G., xxv. The abbess … will have an ungovernable penitent under her charge.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., v. I. 592. These animals … became ungovernable as soon as they heard a gun fired. Ibid. (1855), xvii. IV. 101. The fiercest and most ungovernable part of the … population.

  sb.  1810.  Byron, Lett. to H. Drury, 3 May. I have been with … governors and ungovernables.

  b.  Of temper, passion, etc.

1676.  Hale, Contempl., I. 341. Men pretending to greatness of wit and learning, but in truth of haughty and ungovernable spirits.

1741.  Richardson, Pamela, II. 36. This strange wayward Heart of mine, that I never found so ungovernable and awkward before.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxxi. (1797), III. 251. The ungovernable spirit of a Barbarian host, impatient of peace or discipline.

1843.  Bethune, Sc. Fireside Stor., 100. He fell into a most ungovernable passion.

1876.  T. Hardy, Ethelberta (1890), 400. As if by an ungovernable impulse, Ethelberta broke into laughter also.

  c.  Of things.

1773.  Cook, Voy. S. Pole, II. ii. (1777), I. 205. Having unshipped the rudder, which rendered her ungovernable.

1839.  Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia (1863), 58. The stiff and ungovernable hair.

1852.  Hawthorne, True Stories, iii. (1879), 22. That … ungovernable wonder the wind.

a. 1860.  Grand-duchess Stephanie, quoted in Napoleon III. (1865), 53. How could you hope to govern this ungovernable land [France], even supposing that a coup de main succeeded?

  Hence Ungovernableness.

1673.  Lady’s Calling, I. ii. § 13. The ungovernableness of a woman.

1701.  Collier, M. Aurel. (1726), 96. You’d best murther your general, and add villany to your ungovernableness.

1751.  Eliza Heywood, Betsy Thoughtless, I. 103. Lamenting the ungovernableness of youth.

1853.  Ruskin, Stones Ven., II. App. 393. The ungovernableness of its colour (changing in the furnace).

1882.  Pall Mall G., 20 June, 2/1. As much an illustration of misgovernment as of our ungovernableness.