Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Impossible to describe adequately.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not describable; incapable of being described.
- Trousers (a humorous euphemism).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Incapable of being described.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Impossible , or verydifficult todescribe . - adjective
Exceeding alldescription .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective defying expression or description
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I'm tempted to call it "indescribable," except we need to describe it, eh?
Boing Boing: August 20, 2006 - August 26, 2006 Archives 2006
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Nancy, you know, they continue to just be -- I don ` t want to use the word indescribable because, you know, frankly, it ` s my job to try to describe it and seems like a cop-out.
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On the occasion of the betrothal she had arrived late, dressed in indescribable odds and ends, with an artificial red flower stuck into her frowzy wig.
The Promised Land 1912
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We marched [30 Oct.] to Madrid, or rather its suburbs, where the poor inhabitants were in indescribable distress, seeing that they were again to be abandoned to French clemency and contributions.
The Autobiography of Liuetenant-General Sir Harry Smith, Baronet of Aliwal on the Sutlej, G. C. B. 1903
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I think there was a certain indescribable reserve of gravity upon them all, but there was not one whose lips did not part in a white line when looking at me, nor whose eyes and ears did not watch me with an interest as benign as it was intent.
Daisy 1868
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It was with a twitch of this kind, and a certain indescribable twinkle of his somewhat melancholy eye, as he seemed intuitively to form a hasty conception of the oddity of his appearance to a stranger unused to the bush, that he welcomed me to his clearing.
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Yet there was something superior, Atherton thought, something more tasteful, in short, indescribable, about this female.
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The zipping allows us sensory delights which can only remain indescribable.
365 tomorrows » 2009 » February : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day 2009
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Historian/music critic Greil Marcus coined the term "yarragh" to refer to the indescribable impact of "certain sounds, certain small moments inside a song which can then suggest whole territories, completed stories, indistinct ceremonies, far outside anything that can be literally traced in the compositions that carry them."
Michael Sigman: Jeff Beck at 67: Perennial Guitar Hero Michael Sigman 2012
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Many sources downplay the toxicity factor and riddle toxins as unknown and indescribable, which is far from the truth.
whichbe commented on the word indescribable
Once you label something as indescribable, it then has a description, which no longer makes it indescribable. (Wikipedia)
June 6, 2008
seanahan commented on the word indescribable
That's stupid. Wikipedia, you're stupid. Indescribable is the absence of a description, not a description itself.
June 9, 2008
fbharjo commented on the word indescribable
indesCRibABle
March 5, 2012