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Oxford English Dictionary

unattainable unaˈttainable, a. and n.
[un-1 7 b and 12.]
A. adj. That cannot be attained or reached.
1662 Bp. Hopkins Serm., Funeral (1685) 52 Those thirty or forty years, which were judged by thee in thy childhood an unattainable age. 1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxi. §40 The will..cannot, at any time, be moved towards what is judged, at that time, unattainable. 1736 Pope Let. to Swift 25 Mar., A View of the useful and therefore attainable, and of the un-useful and therefore un-attainable, Arts. 1771 Junius' Lett. lxiii. (1788) 334 This, though a wicked purpose, is neither absurd nor unattainable. 1809 Edin. Rev. XIV. 283 The great body of the people never yet engaged eagerly in the pursuit of an unattainable object. 1860 Ruskin Unto this Last (1862) 80 Though absolute justice be unattainable, as much justice as we need for all practical use is attainable.
B. n.
1. An unattainable thing. rare.
1661 Glanvill Van. Dogm. 112 Temperamentum ad pondus, may well be reckon'd among the three Philosophical unattainables. 1786 Cowper Let. to Lady Hesketh 10 Apr., Range and jack [in a kitchen] are not unattainables; they may be easily supplied.
2. With the: That which is not attainable.
1857 Maurice Ep. St. John xx. 340 In one sense I can admit that man is always striving after the unattainable. 1882 M. E. Braddon Mt. Royal I. iii. 101 All women sigh for the unattainable.
Hence unaˈttainableness; -ably adv.
1690 Locke Hum. Und. ii. xx. §11 Despair is the thought of the unattainableness of any Good. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 371 A strange repulsion and unattainableness in the very spell that made her beautiful. 1894 Hall Caine Manxman iii. xxv, She would be with him always;..the more reproachfully and unattainably, because she would be the wife of another man.

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English

unattainable
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
ideal
▪ This is not an unattainable ideal, but a goal which you must pursue in order to avoid stagnation.
▪ That is, better an unattainable ideal than a limited attainable goal when it comes to the welfare of our fellow men.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ an unattainable goal
▪ For many young people in rural areas, a university education seems like an unattainable dream.
▪ Television can create deep dissatisfaction by portraying lifestyles that are unattainable.
▪ The new exams have been designed for weaker students who, until now, have been set unattainable targets.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A thin ribbon that separates unparalleled views from unattainable wealth, the walk is a welcome balm to the landlocked masses.
▪ However, it may be unfair to accuse the candidates of failing to attain the unattainable.
▪ It is unattainable, not because of the nature of things, but because of the nature of our faculties.
▪ Participants get a cultural exposure unattainable by ordinary tourists.
▪ Perfection is never qualified or quantified, making it therefore unattainable.
▪ The idea of wealth was not just unattainable, it was unthinkable; when the thought was uttered he ridiculed it.
▪ This makes them subservient to a moral objective which may be unattainable.
▪ Worse, in their enthusiasm for achieving the vision, they may be unable to see that it is unattainable.

Usage examples of "unattainable".

Murrough frequently complained of having Brian Boru held up to him, an unattainable standard of perfection.

Until you do, it matters not where we are, for Margaron will be unattainable.

From such laudable arts did the valor of the Imperial troops receive a degree of firmness and docility unattainable by the impetuous and irregular passions of barbarians.

But beyond, and high above all, as if the spirits of the air had suddenly unveiled their bright abodes, placed in scaleless altitude in the stainless sky, heaven-kissing, companions of the unattainable ether, were the glorious Alps, clothed in dazzling robes of light by the setting sun.

I stood in the doorway with all that had gone unspoken and unconfronted in my friendship with Devin hanging between us as Darin sang with a detached mourning for the unattainable, the gulf between what we wish for and what we get.

He had mentioned the one-to-one ratio simply as an unattainable opening salvo to establish one end-point to the range, however ridiculous that endpoint was, as any good negotiator would start a discussion, with the hope that Schuler might ultimately see his way clear to saying he could underwrite perhaps half a billion dollars.

There be passed a quiet afternoon, nursing a light fever in his bunk, thinking of Hardman and his strange southward odyssey, and of the silt banks glowing like luminous gold in the meridian sun, both forbidding and inviting, like the lost but forever beckoning and unattainable shores of the amnionic paradise.

Iron suspension bridges began to be used at the end of the 18th century for road bridges with spans unattainable at that time in any other system.

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