1. = INTRACTABLE a. 1. (Common c. 1550–1800.)
1538. Elyot, Insanus, madde, peuyshe,… vntractable.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Matt. xviii. 75. Yf he be so vntractable that he wyll not be moued neyther wyth shame, nor wyth feare of iudgemente.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. 320. His horses … are become resty, furious, and untractable.
a. 1619. Fotherby, Atheom., I. xii. § 4 (1622), 130. Pharaoh … was as stiffe, and as vntractable, as a rocke.
1670. Cotton, Espernon, II. VIII. 409. Birds … of those kinds which with us are the most wild, and untractable.
1714. R. Fiddes, Pract. Disc., II. 300. Persons of a base and untractable temper.
1777. Robertson, Hist. Amer., v. II. 78. The untractable arrogance of Narvaez.
1818. [see UNTAMEABLE a.].
1824. Miss L. M. Hawkins, Annaline, III. 32. His followers … [were] more furious and untractable from the dreadful excesses they had committed.
2. = INTRACTABLE a. 2.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 118. Other hearbs, hideous to the eye, and untractable in hand.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon (1810), 5. Hills are untractable to tillage.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 476. But I Toild out my uncouth passage, forc’t to ride Th’ untractable Abysse.
1743. W. Emerson, Fluxions, 85. If you have an untractable Fluxion that will answer to none of the Forms.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxiv. He … wrung bitterly the hands, which his mail-gloves rendered untractable.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Ind. Sci., II. 177. There was room, among these hitherto untractable irregularities, for the additional results of the theory.
Hence Untractableness.
1599. Sandys, Europæ Spec. (1605), T 3. The vntractablenesse of Papacy to it.
a. 1600. Hooker, Serm. on Pride, I. § 9. Disobedience of children, stubbornes of servants, vntractablenesse in them, who … should … bee also subiect.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., IV. xx. § 5. In the Dulness or Untractableness of those Faculties for want of Use.
1752. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), II. 432. Will they ever expect a peaceable prelate, if untractableness is thus punished?
1788. A. Hamilton, Federalist, No. 31, ¶ 3. Caution and investigation are a necessary armor against error and imposition. But this untractableness may be carried too far, and may degenerate into obstinacy, perverseness, or disingenuity.
1817. Jas. Mill, Brit. India, II. IV. ii. 70. The untractableness of his own disposition.
