1. Of things or places: That cannot be approached; inaccessible.
1581. A. Gilby, Test. 12 Patriarchs, 28. We went to a strong walled, and vnapprochable Citie … whiche threatened to kill vs.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut., xxii. 130. To the ende that wee shoulde learne to be humble and to know that hee dwelleth in vnapprochable light.
1625. K. Long, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, III. vii. 175. The Hill is unapproachable toward the Sea-side.
1685. Boyle, High Veneration, § 6. 5. God … is said to inhabite an unapproachable Light, which humane Speculations cannot penetrate.
1742. Young, Nt. Th., IX. 850. He resides above them all, In glory’s unapproachable recess.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., xliii. All alone, and in a place of almost unapproachable seclusion.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, I. There were districts in which the heat was so intense that they were unapproachable.
fig. 1686. trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 51. which sort of Policy, having neither Art nor Principles, was as it were unapproachable.
2. That cannot be approached in confidence or intimacy.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, liii. Mr. Dombey is unapproachable by any one, and his state of mind is haughty, rash, unreasonable, and ungovernable, now. Ibid. (1865), Mut. Fr., III. viii. All such things she would hear discussed, as we … in our unapproachable magnificence never hear them.
1904. Mrs. M. Creighton, Life Bp. Creighton, vi. I. 158. The fisherfolk no doubt had the most heart and the most imagination, and the hinds were the most unapproachable.
3. Beyond the reach of rivalry; matchless.
1831. Carlyle, Sart. Res., III. xi. The epithet schneidermässig (tailor-like) betokens an otherwise unapproachable degree of pusillanimity.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. i. 68. Out of the illuminations arose those paintings which remain unapproached and unapproachable in their excellence.
1871. E. F. Burr, Ad Fidem, xiv. 220. A sermon of unapproachable eloquence, and pathos.
4. absol. as sb. One who, or that which, cannot be approached or equalled.
1800. Coleridge, Piccolom., III. i. We shall view The Unapproachable glide out in splendour.
1821. Shelley, Sonn. Byron, 6. A worm whose life may share A portion of the unapproachable.
1886. Academy, 22 May, 357/3. One or two [translations] from Heine come as near to the unapproachable as can fairly be expected.
Hence Unapproachableness, -ably adv.
1727. Bailey (vol. II.), Inaccessibleness, *unapproachableness.
1825. Eng. Life, II. 82. He became resolutely silent and did not attempt to overcome his unapproachableness.
1874. Lisle Carr, Jud. Gwynne, I. iii. 94. The unapproachableness of the disdainful governess.
1846. Worcester, *Unapproachably, so as not to be approached. Dr. Allen.
1863. Ld. Lytton, Ring Amasis, I. 36. The habitual consciousness of an unapproachably high social position.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Miner’s Right (1899), 177/2. The illustrious Jake Challerson, unapproachably apparelled, redolent of fabulous wealth.
