ungraspable

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ graspable.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ʌnˈɡɹɑːspəb(ə)l/

Adjective

ungraspable (not comparable)

1. Not able to be reached or grasped.
   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

     It is the image of the ungraspable phantom of life; and this is the key to it all.

2. Not able to be remembered or comprehended.
   • 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 250:

     Before, somewhere and time ungraspable, blurred and beset with bewildering details, she had lain alone in bed, listening to gladsome bird voices, mingled with a sense of distressed humanity.