irrefragable

comparative more irrefragable · superlative most irrefragable · alternative irrefragible

1. error lua execWhich cannot be refuted; clearly right, incontrovertible, indisputable, irrefutable.First known use 16th c.

   He knew what's what, and that's as high / As Metaphysick Wit can fly, / In School Divinity as able / As he that hight Irrefragable; […]

   1662 (indicated as 1663), [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]. Canto I.”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 7

   4 more examples

   Beſide, what methodicall artiſt would allow the encomium of the foxe in the prayſe of the aſſe, unleſſe I would proove by irrefragable demonſtration, that the falſe fox was a true aſſe: as I once heard a learned phyſician affirme, if a gooſe were a fox, he was a fox.

   1593, Gabriell Haruey [i.e., Gabriel Harvey], Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. A Preparative to Certaine Larger Discourses, Intituled Nashes S. Fame, London: […] Iohn Wolfe, →OCLC; republished as John Payne Collier, editor, Pierces Supererogation: Or A New Prayse of the Old Asse. […] (Miscellaneous Tracts. Temp. Eliz. & Jac. I; no. 8), [London]: [s.n.], [1870], →OCLC, page 210

   In this Kings reign flouriſhed in England, the Irrefragable Doctor Alexander de Hales, who was School-Maſter to the Angelic Dr. Thomas Aquinas.

   1679, [William Howell], “Henry III”, in Medulla Historiæ Anglicanæ. Being a Comprehensive History of the Lives and Reigns of the Monarchs of England, […], London: […] Abel Swalle, […], →OCLC, page 178

   This is the way to end the vexatious Queſtions about them [the Kingdom of the Picts], being taken out of the moſt authentick Records of Ireland, which are of ſuch irrefragable Authority, That ſome are perſuaded, had they been known to [William] Camden, he would never have diſputed the matter. And ſo I think too. But this irrefragable Authority is that of the Pſalter of Caſhel; […]

   1685, Ed[ward] Stillingfleet, “Of the Declension of the British Churches”, in Origines Britannicæ, or, The Antiquities of the British Churches. […], London: […] M[iles] Flesher for Henry Mortlock, […], →OCLC, page 274

   [A]ll the preſent compoſers of French comic operas imitate the Italian ſtyle, […] I wiſh this may not, ſometimes, happen in England; but, however that may be, it is certainly an irrefragable proof of the ſuperiority of that melody which is become the common muſical language of all Europe: […]

   1775, Charles Burney, “Brussels”, in The Present State of Music in Germany, the Netherlands, and United Provinces. […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: […] T. Becket, […]; J. Robson, […]; and G. Robinson, […], →OCLC, pages 53–54

   Synonyms: incontestable, indubitable, unanswerable, undeniable, unquestionable, inarguable, incontestable, incontrovertible · Antonyms: contestable, controvertible, deniable, disputable, dubitable, questionable, refragable, refutable

2. archaicWhich cannot or should not be broken; indestructible.

   […] Intire Affection (from whence Integrity has its name) as it is anſwerable to it-ſelf, proportionable, and rational; ſo it is irrefragable, ſolid, and durable.

   1699, A.A.C.A.N.A.Æ.C.M.D.C.L.X.X.J. [pseudonym; Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury], “Treatise IV. Viz. an Inquiry Concerning Virtue, or Merit. […]”, in Characteristics, &c. [i.e., Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times. […]], volume II, [London: John Darby], published 1711, →OCLC, part II, section I, page 111

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   But this loue of ours is immoderate, inordinate, and not to be comprehended in any bounds. It will not containe it ſelfe within the vnion of marriage, or apply it ſelfe to one obiect, but it is a wandring extravagant, a domineering, a boundleſſe, an irrefragable paſſion: […]

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “How Loue Tyrannizeth ouer Men. Loue or Heroicall Melancholy, His Definition, Part Affected.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 1, subsection 2, page 363

   Synonyms: inviolable, irresistible

3. obsoleteOf a person: obstinate, stubborn.

   Many young men are as obſtinate, and as curious in their choice, as tyrannically proud, inſulting, deceitfull, falſe hearing, as irrefragable & peeuiſh, Narciſſus like, […]

   1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “The Last and Best Cure of Loue Melancholy, is, to Let Them Haue Their Desire”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 5, subsection 5, page 453

   Synonyms: adamant, ardent, grim, untiring, bent on, bloody-minded, bullheaded, certain · Antonyms: bain, bendable, bendsome, bendy, flexible, flexile, limber, lithe