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 endured
Familiarity information: INTOLERABLE used as an adjective is very rare.
Dictionary entry details
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)
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