1. Incapable of being paid: a. Of debts, etc.
1463. G. Ashby, Prisoner’s Refl., 44. I am put to vnpayable det.
1611. Cotgr., Insolvable, vnpayable, vnlikely to be payed.
1656. Earl Orrery, Parthen., III. IV. 269. I finde my scores of gratitude are as unpayable to the Brother, as those of adoration are to the Sister.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), X. 295. The debt of a thousand talents due to him from her, yet by reason of this her great poverty … utterly unpayable.
1899. Mackail, W. Morris, ii. 27. The price is unpayable.
b. Of persons.
1856. Lever, Martins of Cro’ M., xxxi. 325. Our Club [would] become only an asylum for unpayable tailors.
1868. Carlyle, in Mrs. C’s Lett. (1883), I. 24. A poor creditor, unpayable, overheard Mrs. A. whispering, ‘Let us keep’ [etc.].
2. Incapable of paying, unremunerative.
1880. G. Sutherland, Tales Goldfields, 50. The goldfields were unpayable.
1896. in Morris, Austral.-Eng. (1898), 487. Unpayable Lines…. Of these [railways] 33 … do not pay working expenses.
