illimitable meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

illimitable

adj

/ɪˈlɪmɪtəbəl/

Etymology From il- + limitable.

Impervious to limitation, without limit.

For although in that ancient and diffuſed adoration of IdolLs, unto the Prieſts and ſubtiler heads, the vvorſhip perhaps might be ſymbolicall, and as thoſe Images ſome vvay related unto their deities, yet vvas the Idolatry direct and dovvne-right in the people, vvhoſe credulity is illimitable, vvho may be made believe that any thing is God, and may be made believe there is no God at all.1646, Thomas Browne, “Of Credulity and Supinity”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], London: […] T[homas] H[arper] for Edward Dod, […], →OCLC, 1st book, page 17:
The perception of this law of laws awakens in the mind a sentiment which we call the religious sentiment, and which makes our highest happiness. […] This sentiment is divine and deifying. It is the beatitude of man. It makes him illimitable.1838, Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge, Sunday evening, 15 July, 1838:

4 more examples

[…] Arthur with a hundred spears / Rode far, till o'er the illimitable reed, / And many a glancing plash and sallowy isle, / The wide-wing'd sunset of the misty marsh / Glared on a huge machicolated tower […]1875, Alfred Tennyson, “The Last Tournament”, in Idylls of the King (The Works of Alfred Tennyson; VII), cabinet edition, London: Henry S. King & Co., […], →OCLC, page 51:
Through the sense of touch I know […] the illimitable variety of straight and curved lines,1908, Helen Keller, chapter 4, in The World I Live In,, New York: The Century Co., page 43:
The Creator sat upon the throne, thinking. Behind him stretched the illimitable continent of heaven, steeped in a glory of light and color; before him rose the black night of Space, like a wall.ca. 1909, Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth [Introduction]
What a tremendous affair it was, the world of Homer, with its indeterminate boundaries, vast regions, and immeasurable distances. The Mediterranean and the Euxine were illimitable stretches of ocean waste over which years could be spent in endless wandering.1909, Jack London, Revolution and Other Essays: The Shrinkage of the Planet: