English Dictionary

INTOLERABLE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does intolerable mean? 

INTOLERABLE (adjective)
  The adjective INTOLERABLE has 1 sense:

1. incapable of being tolerated or enduredplay

  Familiarity information: INTOLERABLE used as an adjective is very rare.


 Dictionary entry details 


INTOLERABLE (adjective)


Sense 1

Meaning:

Incapable of being tolerated or endured

Synonyms:

intolerable; unbearable; unendurable

Context example:

an intolerable degree of sentimentality

Similar:

bitter (very difficult to accept or bear)

insufferable; unsufferable (too extreme to bear)

impossible; unacceptable ((used of persons or their behavior) not acceptable or reasonable)

insufferable (unbearably arrogant or conceited)

unsupportable (not able to be supported or defended)

Also:

impermissible (not permitted)

Antonym:

tolerable (capable of being borne or endured)


 Context examples 


Unless I had been animated by an almost supernatural enthusiasm, my application to this study would have been irksome and almost intolerable.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Even if my comrades should not have missed me, and should never know of my weakness, there would still remain some intolerable self-shame in my own soul.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He jerked himself about, after this compliment, in such an intolerable manner, that my aunt, who had sat looking straight at him, lost all patience.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Were it settled so, it would be somewhat less intolerable, though in such common attentions you would have received but half what you ought.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

If a situation is intolerable, you need to leave it.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

They have a sharp, shrewish look, which I do not like at all; and in her air altogether there is a self-sufficiency without fashion, which is intolerable.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The servant who had first entered had thrown up the window, or it would have been even more intolerable.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This gave place to a sense of intolerable anguish.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

It was like the intolerable, tingling sweetness of water-glasses when played on by a cunning hand.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Small conceits are intolerable, but when they are pushed to the uttermost they become respectable.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)



 Learn English with... Proverbs 
"Do as you would be done by." (English proverb)

"The mountains shake but do not fall." (Albanian proverb)

"If you know then it's a disaster, and if you don't know then it's a greater disaster." (Arabic proverb)

"By firelight, an old rag looks like sturdy hemp fabric." (Corsican proverb)



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