Unmanageable

a. [UN-¹ 7 b.]

  1.  Incapable of being governed or controlled: a. Or persons or their disposition.

1632.  B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, I. i. My humour being as stubborn as the rest, And as unmanageable.

1665.  Glanvill, Def. Van. Dogm., p. x. They … are rendred unmanageable by any Authority but that of Absolute Dominion.

1728.  Morgan, Algiers, II. v. 316. That tough, lofty, unmanageable Monarch [sc. Henry VIII.].

1791.  Bentham, Panopt., I. 39. As to safe custody and good order, four [prisoners] is not such a number as can well be deemed unmanageable.

1804.  Abernethy, Surg. Obs., 186. [During] the greater part of the delirium he had been very unmanageable.

1887.  Spectator, 25 June, 854/2. The rise of soldiers who might be unmanageable or too successful.

  b.  Of animals. (Also in fig. context.)

1678.  Mrs. Behn, Sir P. Fancy, I. i. [The fops] of the Town are the most unmanageable beasts in nature.

1681.  R. L’Estrange, Tully’s Offices, 45. Horses … grown Fierce, and Unmenageable, by being chaf’d.

1712.  Waterland, Serm., Wks. 1823, VIII. 383. When they grow impatient of the curb … they do but show … how much more unruly and unmanageable they had been without it.

1823.  Scott, Quentin D., ix. Each fresh gambade of his unmanageable horse.

1855.  Poultry Chron., II. 611/1. She [sc. a hen] was rather conceited, unmanageable, and very touchy about interference.

1878.  Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 314. The elephants … became unmanageable.

  c.  Of things.

1794.  Paley, Evid., I. II. ii. § 3. Convulsions … are amongst the most uncertain and unmanageable applications to the human frame.

1898.  ‘Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xxi. When human affairs suddenly appear to become unmanageable.

  2.  Incapable of being properly or conveniently handled or manipulated.

1658.  Phillips, Immanity,… such a hugenesse as renders a thing unmanageable.

1779.  Phil. Trans., LXIX. 422. It required an index of an unmanageable length.

1805.  in Nicolas, Disp. Nelson (1846), VII. 166. So that the Ship was entirely unmanageable.

1822.  J. Flint, Lett. Amer., 75. Travellers … ought not to adopt large boxes, which … are comparatively unmanageable on every occasion.

1885.  Manch. Exam., 17 Jan., 5/4. A great, awkward, unmanageable goods train.

  transf.  1827.  Scott, Two Drovers, i. The hill rung with the discordant attempts of the Saxon upon the unmanageable monosyllable.

1855.  Poultry Chron., III. 335/1. Irish [oats] are unmanageable and comparatively neglected.

  Hence Unmanageably adv.

1805.  Foster, Ess. (1806), I. 185. If even one of the four [horses] were unmanageably perverse, while the three were obedient.

1860.  Froude, Hist. Eng., VI. 329. Meantime, Philip … was becoming unmanageably impatient.