adj. (colloquial).—A general intensive: extremely bad. Thus an UNSPEAKABLE (= outrageous) FOOL; an UNSPEAKABLE (= ‘rotten’) PLAY; the UNSPEAKABLE (= cruel) TURK. [A Carlyleism.]
1831. CARLYLE, Miscellanies, ‘Nibelungen Lied.’ That UNSPEAKABLE TURK, King Machabol. Ibid., Letter to George Howard (24 Nov. 1876). The UNSPEAKABLE TURK should immediately be struck out of the question and the country left to honest European guidance.
