a. [UN-1 7 b.]
1. fig. Of feelings, qualities, conditions, etc.: Incapable of being fully ascertained, explored, exhausted, etc.
1617. Collins, Def. Bp. Ely, II. ix. 404. Who are you then to gage hearts, which Hieremy sayes are vnfaddomable.
1663. Bp. Patrick, Parab. Pilgr., xxvii. Thy Goodness is unfathomable, else we should have sunk long before this beyond the depth of it.
1719. Young, Busiris, V. i. An earnest Of vast unfathomable woes to come.
1768–74. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 119. What their real sentiments may be I shall not pretend to guess, for they are an unfathomable sort of people.
1802–12. Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827), II. 315. Subjected to an unfathomable mass of punishment.
1850. Thackeray, Pendennis, iv. Her eyes … shone with tenderness and mystery unfathomable.
1891. Meredith, One of our Conq., xxvi. Lady Cantor spoke to her of Dudley’s unfathomable gloom.
2. Incapable of being fathomed or measured; unsoundable, immeasurable, vast:
a. Of space (esp. in depth).
a. 1676. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., II. vii. (1677), 187. Not … meerly by the Superficies of the Sea, but by its vast depth, which in some places is unfathomable.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 420, ¶ 3. Those unfathomable Depths of Ether.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 479. The unfathomable abysses of the ocean.
1815. Shelley, Alastor, 373. On the unfathomable stream The boat moved slowly.
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., I. 760. Ye may well look up surprised To those unfathomable heavens that feed Your purple hills!
1879. Miss Braddon, Cloven Foot, iv. The long dazzling boulevards stretching into unfathomable distance before her eyes.
b. In fig. contexts. (Cf. 1.)
1640. Bp. Hall, Chr. Moder., II. § 7. 47. These are indeed unfadomable depths in that Ocean, wherin we shall vainly hope to pitch our anchor.
1672. Stillingfl., Serm., xii. (1673), 237. O the unfathomable Abysse of Eternity!
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 309, ¶ 14. Sounding the unfathomable Depths of Fate, Free-will and Fore-knowledge.
1739. Wesley, ‘Lo! God is here!’ v. Thou source and life of all! Thou vast, unfathomable Sea!
1820. Shelley, Fiordispina, 9. For thou the wonders of the depth canst know Of this unfathomable flood of hours.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xxi. IV. 575. In truth the depths of this man’s knavery were unfathomable.
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, iii. An unfathomable ocean of love and beauty.
absol. 1831. Carlyle, Sartor Res., II. vii. Two little visual Spectra of men, hovering … in the midst of the Unfathomable.
c. fig. Of the eyes.
1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, VI. xxxviii. The sweet peace of joy did almost fill The depth of her unfathomable look.
1854. Thackeray, Newcomes, xxx. Her unfathomable eyes were wells of gloom.
1882. ‘Ouida,’ Maremma, I. 212. Her lustrous, unfathomable, star-like eyes.
Hence Unfathomableness.
1690. Norris, Beatitudes (1692), 133. The Unfathomableness of the great Dispensation of Mercy.
1832. trans. Tour Germ. Prince, II. xii. 244. The immortal secret…, the unfathomableness of which had so tormented the ‘élégants’ of the metropolis.
1872. Geo. Eliot, Middlem., III. xxiii. In Mr. Horrock there was certainly an apparent unfathomableness, which offered play to the imagination.
