insufferable

comparative more insufferable · superlative most insufferable

1. Not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure; intolerable, unbearable.

   She is sensible that a vain person is the most insufferable creature living in a well-bred assembly.

   1712 July 22 (Gregorian calendar), [Richard Steele], “FRIDAY, July 12, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 429; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume V, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC, page 120

   5 more examples

   No, his good Meen, his Youth, and blooming Face / Tempt him to think, that vvith a better grace / Himſelf might ſit, and thou ſupply his place. / Behold there yet remains, vvhich muſt be born, / Proud Servants more inſufferable Scorn.

   1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, W. Bowles, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fifth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC, page 76

   This is insufferable! My dearest friend, I was never so enraged before, and must relieve myself by writing to you, who I know will enter into all my feelings.

   c. 1794, Jane Austen, “[Lady Susan.] XXII. Lady Susan to Mrs. Johnson.”, in J[ames] E[dward] Austen[-]Leigh, A Memoir of Jane Austen: […] to which is Added Lady Susan and Fragments of Two Other Unfinished Tales by Miss Austen, 2nd edition, London: Richard Bentley and Son, […], published 1871, →OCLC, page 249

   "She had better have stayed at home," cried Elizabeth; "perhaps she meant well, but, under such a misfortune as this, one cannot see too little of one's neighbours. Assistance is impossible; condolence, insufferable. Let them triumph over us at a distance, and be satisfied."

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter V, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume III, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 108

   He heard and saw, and sought to free / His strain'd eye from the sight: / But Heaven's high magic bound it there, / Still gazing, though untaught to bear / Th' insufferable light.

   1827, [John Keble], “The Conversion of St. Paul”, in The Christian Year: Thoughts in Verse for the Sundays and Holydays throughout the Year, volume II, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [B]y W. Baxter, for J. Parker; and C[harles] and J[ohn] Rivington, […], →OCLC, pages 111–112

   It was of course familiar to me that Saltram was incapable of keeping the engagements which, after their separation, he had entered into with regard to his wife, a deeply wronged, justly resentful, quite irreproachable and insufferable person.

   1894, Henry James, “The Coxon Fund. Chapter IV.”, in Terminations […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, published 1895, →OCLC, page 80

   Synonyms: insupportable, unabideable, unendurable, unsufferable, unsupportable · Antonyms: abideable, bearable, endurable, sufferable, supportable, tolerable