a. [UN-1 7 b.]
1. = UNACCOUNTABLE a. 2 b. Obs.–1
a. 1400–50. Bk. Curtasye, 544, in Babees Bk. The Countrollour shalle wryte to hym,… Vncountabulle he is, as y ȝou say.
2. Too numerous to be counted; innumerable.
1582. Stanyhurst, Æneis, etc. (Arb.), 142. But toe what eend labor I … Thee stars too number, poincts playnely vncounctabil opning.
1586. W. Webbe, Eng. Poetrie (Arb.), 36. The vncountable rabble of ryming Ballet makers.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, I. i. § 11. 15. So were not those vncountable glorious bodies set in the firmament, to no other end, than to adorne it.
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, xix. Nests in numbers uncountable.
1876. Mrs. Whitney, Sights & Ins., xxi. Millions of little uncountable, inseparable threads.
b. Of the pulse, etc.: Too rapid to be counted.
1823. Grace Kennedy, Father Clement, x. (1824), 293. Ernest gave his hand, and Dormer pressed it on his temples. The full throb seemed uncountable.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 623. The tongue soon becomes dry, the pulse is uncountable.
3. Inestimable, immense.
1858. Carlyle, Fredk. Gt., III. viii. I. 263. Which has been of uncountable advantage to Brandenburg.
1860. Cornh. Mag., 134. To give uncountable happiness and delight to the world.
Hence Uncountably adv.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe, 27. Her Maiesties tributes and customes … augmenteth and enlargeth vncountably.
