illimitable
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: ĭlĭm'ĭtəbəl
ipa: /ɪˈlɪmɪtəbəl/
Forms: form: more illimitable
form: most illimitable
Etymology: From il- + limitable.
Senses: examples: text: For although in that ancient and diffuſed adoration of IdolLs, unto the Prieſts and ſubtiler heads, the vvorſhip perhaps might be ſymbolicall, and as thoſe Images ſome vvay related unto their deities, yet vvas the Idolatry direct and dovvne-right in the people, vvhoſe credulity is illimitable, vvho may be made believe that any thing is God, and may be made believe there is no God at all.
ref: 1646, Thomas Browne, “Of Credulity and Supinity”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 17:
text: The perception of this law of laws awakens in the mind a sentiment which we call the religious sentiment, and which makes our highest happiness. […] This sentiment is divine and deifying. It is the beatitude of man. It makes him illimitable.
ref: 1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday evening, 15 July, 1838:
text: Through the sense of touch I know […] the illimitable variety of straight and curved lines,
ref: 1908, Helen Keller, chapter 4, in The World I Live In,, New York: The Century Co., page 43:
text: The Creator sat upon the throne, thinking. Behind him stretched the illimitable continent of heaven, steeped in a glory of light and color; before him rose the black night of Space, like a wall.
ref: ca. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth [Introduction]
text: What a tremendous affair it was, the world of Homer, with its indeterminate boundaries, vast regions, and immeasurable distances. The Mediterranean and the Euxine were illimitable stretches of ocean waste over which years could be spent in endless wandering.
ref: 1909, Jack London, Revolution and Other Essays: The Shrinkage of the Planet:
text: My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.
ref: 1992, Peter A. Bucky, Allen G. Weakland, quoting Albert Einstein, The private Albert Einstein, page 86:
text: That everlasting quest for new frontiers continues today as earthlings burst terrestrial bonds and begin the endless voyage beyond planet and galaxy into the illimitable dark.
ref: 1992 September, Arthur Schlesinger Jr, “Notes: Was America a Mistake?”, in William Whitworth, editor, The Atlantic Monthly, Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:
text: It may seem strange that someone in love with boats and the sea should love the deserts of Central Asia. The Takla Makan is as far from the sea as you can get. Yet, the sea and the desert are strangely similar. The illimitable expanses of both, stretching away to the horizon on all sides, can inspire exhilarating feelings of freedom, of being master of your own fate. Both the desert and the sea can also be pitiless to the lazy, the unprepared, the unwary traveler who ventures upon them. He may pay with his life for his shortcomings.
ref: 1996, Ella Maillart, “Foreward”, in The Alluring Target, Trackless Sands Press, →ISBN, page xiii:
synonyms: infinite
limitless
unlimited
antonyms: limitable
limited
glosses: Impervious to limitation, without limit.
Derived terms: illimitability
illimitableness
illimitably
Related terms: inimitable