INCORRIGIBLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does incorrigible mean? 

• INCORRIGIBLE (adjective)
  The adjective INCORRIGIBLE has 2 senses:

1. impervious to correction by punishment

2. difficult or impossible to manage or control

  Familiarity information: INCORRIGIBLE used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INCORRIGIBLE (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Impervious to correction by punishment

Similar:

unreformable; unregenerate (unrepentant and incapable of being reformed)

uncontrollable; uncorrectable; unmanageable (incapable of being controlled or managed)

Also:

disobedient (not obeying or complying with commands of those in authority)

Antonym:

corrigible (capable of being corrected or set right)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Difficult or impossible to manage or control

Context example:

an incorrigible mess

Similar:

difficult; unmanageable (hard to control)

 Context examples 

After this, Jim Hall went to live in the incorrigible cell.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

As to Mary Jane, she is incorrigible, and my wife has given her notice, but there, again, I fail to see how you work it out.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We never shall be rich, and Plumfield may burn up any night, for that incorrigible Tommy Bangs will smoke sweet-fern cigars under the bed-clothes, though he's set himself afire three times already.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

His repudiation of this offer was almost shrill enough, in the excess of its surprise and humility, to have penetrated to the ears of Mrs. Crupp, then sleeping, I suppose, in a distant chamber, situated at about the level of low-water mark, soothed in her slumbers by the ticking of an incorrigible clock, to which she always referred me when we had any little difference on the score of punctuality, and which was never less than three-quarters of an hour too slow, and had always been put right in the morning by the best authorities.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In San Quentin prison he had proved incorrigible.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But even the satisfaction of talking with a distant connection of the British nobility did not render Amy forgetful of time, and when the proper number of minutes had passed, she reluctantly tore herself from this aristocratic society, and looked about for Jo, fervently hoping that her incorrigible sister would not be found in any position which should bring disgrace upon the name of March.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Amy being gone, Laurie was her only refuge, and much as she enjoyed his society, she rather dreaded him just then, for he was an incorrigible tease, and she feared he would coax the secret from her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)