a. [UN-1 7 b.]
† 1. Wanting in correspondence or agreement; discrepant, dissimilar. Obs.
1611. Florio, Inrispondéuole, vnanswerable.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 86. His good will was much, but the success unanswerable.
1674. N. Fairfax, Bulk & Selv., 133. Another man … may make over the beginnings of manliness…, with a liveliness no ways unanswerable.
† b. Const. to. Also quasi-adv. Obs.
(a) 1614. W. B., Philosopher’s Banquet (ed. 2), 244. A man of so large a stature and bodie,… a woman so small and vnanswereable therevnto.
1616. J. Hayward, Sanct. Troub. Soul, I. xv. (1620), 325. I yeeld thee praises (O Lord) although base and bare, and farre vnanswerable to thy deserts.
1660. Seas. Exhort., 13. Our barrenness and unanswerable walking to the Gospel of Christ.
(b) 1657. Austen, Fruit Trees, II. 93. When the enemies of God see professours … behave themselves unanswerable to their profession, these things reflect even upon God.
1670. Devout Commun. (1688), 175. I have walked … unanswerable to those multiplied obligations laid upon me.
2. That cannot be answered; not admitting of an answer.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, IX. xv. 747. A Bishop in America hath written a large and vnanswerable Treatise of the … vnchristian Antichristian proceedings in the new World.
1690. C. Nesse, O. & N. Test., I. 29. The unanswerable argument of [i.e., for] his knowledge and wisdom.
1709. Berkeley, Th. Vision, § 1. A new and unanswerable proof of the Existence and immediate Operation of God.
1796. Mme. D’Arblay, Camilla, VIII. x. IV. 379. Edgar sighed, but acknowledged this question to be unanswerable.
1814. Byron, Corsair, II. xv. Oh! too convincing—dangerously dear—In woman’s eye the unanswerable tear!
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxviii. A solving of all moral problems by an unanswerable wisdom!
1894. Mrs. Dyan, Man’s Keeping (1899), 271. She never plied him with embarrassing, unanswerable questions.
3. Unable to answer; irresponsible.
1884. Manch. Exam., 21 July, 4. He committed the offence … whilst suffering from a fit, and unanswerable for his acts.
