a. [UN-1 7 b.]
1. Not assailable; not open to assault or attack. Also fig.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. ix. 5. Thereto both his owne wylie wit (she sayd), And eke the fastnesse of his dwelling place, Both vnassaylable, gaue him great ayde.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., III. i. 69. I do know but One That vnassayleable holds on his Ranke, Vnshak’d of Motion.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, III. 121. He was always the same,… alike unassailable—inscrutable.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., I. 543. The chief had occupied an unassailable position, but was drawn out by a pretended flight.
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, xii. 167. They have a … heritage of tribulation: but their spiritual safety is unassailable.
2. Not open to adverse criticism.
1830. Mackintosh, Progr. Eth. Philos., Wks. 1846, I. 120. In both cases he occupies the unassailable ground of an appeal to consciousness.
1884. Manch. Exam., 17 Sept., 4/6. The President’s address … does not actually lead us to any unassailable conclusions.
Hence Unassailableness; -ably adv.
Also, in recent use, unassailability.
1870. Pall Mall G., 20 Oct., 3. America possesses over us the advantages of distance and unassailableness.
1876. Bancroft, Hist. U. S., VI. xxxvii. 184. The two oceans, between which the republic has unassailably intrenched itself.
