unbearable Hear it!

unbearable Definition

un·bear·able (-berə bəl)

adjective

that cannot be endured or tolerated

unbearable Related Forms
un·bear·able·ness noun un·bear·ably adverb
unbearable Synonyms

unbearable

modif.

unendurable, unacceptable, too much*; see intolerable.

unbearable Usage Examples

Preposition: at

  • time: The pressure he lived with must have been unbearable at times.

Adjective complement with noun phrase

  • make: The story moves slowly, which makes the suspense almost unbearable.
  • find: Brown was attached to the 12th East Worcester Regiment of Foot and found army life unbearable.

Modifies a noun

  • lightness: This is the " unbearable lightness of being " .
  • poignancy: Then the unbearable poignancy of Mama Kass's Dream a Little Dream of Me chosen for his young daughters.. .
  • suffering: In short " unbearable suffering " can be improved with good access to high quality palliative support.
  • burden: Traffic through many country villages is already an unbearable burden.
  • tension: Every last tiny detail is drenched with unbearable tension, especially at the very beginning.
  • pain: With a physical death there is a public funeral, a ritual to help us through the unbearable pain of loss.

Modifying Another Word

  • almost: However, the writing quickly degraded to being almost unbearable.
  • nearly: The stress that battle adds to my body is nearly unbearable.
  • pretty: The subway always smelled of wee back then, so I guess it must be pretty unbearable by now.
  • completely: Otherwise a life as a member of a pack will become completely unbearable.
  • quite: Especially for the Gala shows, which can get quite unbearable!
  • so: There were people crying out to God to kill them because the pain was so unbearable.

Infinitive complement

  • watch: Fadeyev's acting was intense, his grief in the last act was unbearable to watch.

Used with adjective complement

  • become: He gave me the only security I had left in a life which had become unbearable.
  • seem: The sound of the wind in the chimes seems even more unbearable than silence.
  • get: Especially for the Gala shows, which can get quite unbearable!
  • find: I would rather have a baby than go to the dentist - which I find more unbearable.
unbearable Quotes

So writing ismy sole remaining vice.It is an addiction, an illusory release, a presumptuous taming of reality, a way of expressing lightly the unbearable.

—Updike,John Hoyer

There are only two kinds of government, the scarcely tolerable and the absolutely unbearable.

—Dafoe,JohnW

The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

—Kundera, Milan