incredulous

comparative more incredulous · superlative most incredulous

1. Skeptical, disbelieving, or unable to believe.First known use 16th c.

   Xodar listened in incredulous astonishment to my narration of the events which had transpired within the arena at the rites of Issus.

   1913 January–May, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Gods of Mars”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC; republished as “A Break for Liberty”, in The Gods of Mars, Chicago, Ill.: A[lexander] C[aldwell] McClurg & Co., September 1918, →OCLC, page 191

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   In safe flats and dark restaurants, never the same one twice, we ate quiet meals, exchanged our goods and gazed upon each other with the incredulous contentment that passes between mountaineers when they are standing on the peak.

   1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy

2. Expressing or indicative of incredulity.First known use 17th c.

   Reactions at Sun's campus, an hour's drive from San Francisco, ranged from the fearful to the incredulous.

   2009 March 18, Reuters, “Sun Micro Troops Fearful, Incredulous About IBM”, in Wired.com, archived from the original on 30 Jun 2013

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   Then came a report over the radio from one of St. Lo's pilots. He was reporting seeing ships, and they weren't American. Worse still, they were close. Incredulous, Admiral Sprague demanded confirmation, and, circling in closer, the pilot radioed back: "I can see pagoda masts. I see the biggest meatball flag on the biggest battleship I ever saw!"

   2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 1:21 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?, archived from the original on 03 Nov 2022

3. nonstandardlargely obsoleteDifficult to believe; incredible.First known use 17th c.

   Why euery thing adheres togither, that no dramme of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple, no obstacle, no incredulous or vnsafe circumstance […].

   c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

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   Maybe David Ruben had some valid points about the ACLU on the national level from an historical perspective, although critcizing a non-gay organization for not loudly defending gay rights in 1952 seems a little incredulous.

   1979 February 3, David Brill, “ACLU”, in Gay Community News, volume 6, number 27, page 4

   1984, Supreme Court of Illinois, opinion in People v Terrell, 459 N.E.2d 1337, quoted in David C. Brody, James R. Acker, and Wayne A. Logan, Criminal Law, Jones & Bartlett Publishers (2001), →ISBN, page 564, Faced with these facts, we find it incredulous that [the] defendant had any intent other than the armed robbery of the service station.