† 1. Unable to receive and retain. Obs.–1
1692. Dryden, Cleomenes, IV. 43. Some Men are made of such a leaky Mould, That their fill’d Vessels can no fortune hold:… Of that unsusceptible Make am I.
2. Not susceptible of some operation, influence, etc.; = INSUSCEPTIBLE a. a.
(a) 1731. Swift, Strephon & Chloe, 86. While she a Goddess dy’d in Grain Was unsusceptible of Stain.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 5. What then should render these facts and the circumstances attending them unsusceptible of testimony?
1816. Bentham, Chrestom., 99. Although not perhaps completely susceptible, it is however not altogether unsusceptible, of a remedy.
1868. M. Pattison, Academ. Org., iv. 69. Statements … entirely unsusceptible of proof.
1890. Retrospect Med., CII. 237. Cases where the sugar … is unsusceptible of entire removal from the system by dietetic treatment alone.
(b) 1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 153, ¶ 16. An old friend, who professed himself unsusceptible of any impressions from prosperity or misfortune.
1784. Cook’s 3rd Voy., IV. ii. II. 310. They are certainly not wholly unsusceptible of the tender passions.
1814. Southey, Lett. to J. King, 27 Feb. My skin … may very possibly be unsusceptible of this particular irritation.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 519. His serene intellect, singularly unsusceptible of enthusiasm, and singularly averse to extremes.
b. Const. to. = INSUSCEPTIBLE a. b.
1872. Sanford, Estimates Eng. Kings, 400. They rendered him comparatively unsusceptible to the feelings of resentment and implacability.
3. Not readily liable to impressions; = INSUSCEPTIBLE a. c.
1779. Mirror, No. 14. Men unfeeling and unsusceptible, commonly beat the beaten track with activity and resolution.
1860. Froude, Hist. Eng., VI. 92. She was unsusceptible; she had no experience in love.
1893. F. F. Moore, I Forbid Banns, xxvii. Surely the ivory—that most unsusceptible of materials—was warm from her hand.
