1. Too burdensome or grievous to be borne; unbearable, intolerable.
1382. Wyclif, Matt. xxiii. 4. Greuouse chargis, and vnportable, or that mown nat be born.
1424. Paston Lett., I. 17. To here grete and unportable drede … in here spirites.
c. 1470. G. Ashby, Active Policy, 172. Ther hath be in late daies … To myche folk unportable punicion.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 299 b. All the great & unportable paynes whiche it was thy blessed wyll to suffre.
1540. in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. III. III. 273. That I may be delyvered from the cure, and to me the unportable burden in governance of this House.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. viii. 491. These important and vnportable matters did no whit moue him.
2. Extremely large.
1536–7. Act Hen. VIII., in Bolton, Stat. Irel. (1621), 178. Whose Majestie … hath with the expence of an vnportable summe of his own treasure, defended vs.
3. Too heavy to carry.
a. 1618. Raleigh, Invent. Shipping, 9. Had their Cables of Iron chains held any great length, they had been unportable.
1728. E. Smith, Compl. Housew., Pref. [It] would fill an unportable volume.
1782. W. F. Martyn, Geog. Mag., II. 78. Which pieces are so large and unportable, that … a cart or wheel-barrow is necessary.
