1. Incapable of being expressed in words; inexpressible, indescribable, ineffable.
a. 1400. Hampole’s Wks. (1895), I. 199. Þe vnspekeabill & þe vnmesurabill charite, bothe of þe ffadire and of þe sone.
a. 1425. trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc., 37. It may neuer be cured … but if it plese god … for to help wiþ his vnspekeable vertu.
c. 1445. Pecock, Donet, 84. A þing … fer aboue alle creaturis speche vnspekable.
1534. More, Treat. Passion, Wks. 1346/1. It is chaunged by an vnspeakeable woorking, although it seme bread to vs that be weake.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. i. The flocke of unspeakeable vertues laid up … in that best builded folde.
1615. W. Lawson, Country Housew. Gard. (1626), 6. It is vnspeakable, what fatnesse is brought to low grounds by Inundations of waters.
1675. Traherne, Chr. Ethics, 204. Those bodies are superadded, certainly for unspeakable and most glorious ends.
1754. Connoisseur, No. 6, ¶ 4. I had the unspeakable mortification to see my favours sometimes not inserted.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 57. The laws and the system of society conspired together to work unspeakable evils.
1871. Morley, Carlyle, in Crit. Misc., Ser. I. 216. He had the unspeakable advantage of being … respectable.
absol. 1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., II. ix. In what words … [can we] speak even afar-off of the unspeakable?
b. spec. Indescribably or inexpressibly bad or objectionable.
Freq. of the Turk, after quot. 1876. Also absol.
1831. Carlyle, in Westm. Rev., July, 6. How they sailed … into Paynim land; fought with that unspeakable Turk, King Machabol. Ibid. (1843), Past & Pr., I. iii. How ye came among us, in your cruel armed blindness, ye unspeakable County Yeomanry! Ibid. (1876), Lett., in Mem. (1881), II. 311. The unspeakable Turk should be immediately struck out of the question, and the country left to honest European guidance.
1896. Advance (Chicago), 30 Jan., 153/1. We were … even more guilty than the Unspeakable himself.
1902. Crosland (title), The Unspeakable Scot.
c. sb. An ineffable being.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., III. xv. Through all thy … melancholy Business and Cant, there does shine the presence of a Primeval Unspeakable.
2. Incapable of being spoken or uttered; that may not be spoken.
1568. H. B., trans. P. Martyr, Ep. Rom., 224. They are called vnspeakeable sighes, for that we speake not expressedlye what the spirite asketh.
1611. Bible, 2 Cor. xii. 4. He … heard vnspeakable wordes, which it is not lawfull for a man to vtter.
1770. Glover, Leonidas (ed. 5), x. 574. Leonidas, whose looks Declar’d unspeakable applause.
3. U.S. Unwilling or unable to speak.
1888. Advance (Chicago), 29 Nov. The distinguished but unspeakable witness.
1890. Lowell, Lett. (1894), II. 465. My dog … looks up at me as who should say, ‘You are become unspeakable as one of us, poor old fellow!’
4. adv. Unspeakably, indescribably.
1635. Pagitt, Christianogr., 34. Beyond the Land of Cathaie, which they prayse to be civil, and unspeakable rich.
1657. Baxter, Call to Unconverted (1660), 59. How certainly and unspeakable happy you may be if you will.
Hence Unspeakableness.
a. 1586. Sidney, Arcadia, I. xi. The unspeakeablenes of his griefe.
1657. J. Smith, Myst. Rhet., 51. That we may rather conceive the unspeakablenesse then the untruth of the relation.
1691. Bunyan (title), The Greatness of the Soul, and unspeakableness of the loss thereof.
