unsinkable
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]Adjective
[edit]unsinkable (comparative more unsinkable, superlative most unsinkable)
- (chiefly of ships) That cannot be sunk.
- Synonym: sinkproof
- 1981, Patrick White, Flaws in the Glass: A Self-Portrait[1]:
- Any true Grecophile will understand when I say that the unsinkable condom and the smell of shit which precede the moment of illumination make it more exciting when it happens.
- 2007, Eric Puchner, “Children of God”, in Music Through the Floor: Stories[2], page 13:
- It was the kind of place with a neon martini glass for a name and an unsinkable turd floating in the toilet.
- 2008, Adrian Hyland, Moonlight Downs[3]:
- That was the connection, the hook, the key, that was the thought that had been bobbing around like an unsinkable turd in the toilet of my subconscious all night.
- 2021 December 23, ElizaMcPhee, “Kids' toys, jewellery and a BRICK: The bizarre things Sydneysiders tried to flush down their toilet - wih flushed wet wipes costing $8MILLION a year”, in Daily Mail Australia[4]:
- The Sydney water team are hoping that by showing families the 'unflushable' and 'unsinkable' items, that the environment will be a lot better off.
- 2023 June 19, Edward Helmore, Leyland Cecco, “Search under way for tourist submarine missing on dive to wreck of Titanic”, in The Guardian[5], →ISSN:
- The RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner which had been marketed as “unsinkable”, sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912, on a route from Britain to the US after being holed by an iceberg, claiming the lives of 1,514 of the 2,224 passengers and crew.
- (figurative) That cannot be overcome or defeated.
- unsinkable optimism
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]of a ship: that cannot be sunk
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Noun
[edit]unsinkable (plural unsinkables)
- A ship that was designed to be unsinkable.
- 1898 December, Richard Pearson Hobson, “The Sinking of the "Merrimac"”, in Josiah Gilbert Holland, Richard Watson Gilder, editors, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 57, number 2, page 266:
- As the construction and preparation of the unsinkables would require six weeks or two months , I thought it best to make report of my plan to the admiral before the departure from Key West .
- 1930, Shane Leslie, Augustine Agar, Jutland: A Fragment of Epic, page x:
- German unsinkables with their penetrating shell and safety magazines? That there was this acute material disparity between this type of ship of both nations there can be no doubt.
- 1989, William Ratigan, Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals:
- But no large ship has vanished without trace since the whaleback Clifton, another of the “unsinkables” and skippered by Emmet Gallagher of Beaver Island, sailed through a crack in Lake Huron on September 22, 1924, taking all hands — a total of 28— down with her.