unputdownable

See also: un-put-downable

English

WOTD – 23 April 2020

Etymology

From un- +‎ put down +‎ -able.^[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /(ˌ)ʌnpʊtˈdaʊnəb(ə)l/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˌənˌpʊtˈdaʊnəb(ə)l/
Hyphenation: un‧put‧down‧able

Adjective

unputdownable (comparative more unputdownable, superlative most unputdownable) (informal)

Of a person, etc.: difficult or impossible to put down (in various senses).
- 1842 June 17, Robert Hull, “On the Division of Medical Labour”, in The London Medical Gazette, being a Weekly Journal of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences, volume II (New Series; volume XXX overall), number 759, London: Printed for Longman, Brown, Green, & Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 474, column 2:
  I have known an operating surgeon, because he possessed a medical title, to be elected physician to a county hospital. I have known the surgical staff for years refuse to recognize this irregular. Yet, after all, when he became popular and unputdownable, giving in their isolated adhesions to the conqueror, not because they had altered their sentiments, but that their pockets taught them, like nature, to abhor a vacuum.
- 1861, The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine: An Illustrated Journal, Combining Practical Information, Instruction, and Amusement, London: S[amuel] O[rchart] Beeton, →OCLC, page 303:
  Finally, we appeal to all right-minded playgoers. Let them remember that they have got tongues, and that a vigorous, unmistakeable, un-put-downable hiss is, in a theatre, a potent instrument.
- 1985, Antonio Skármeta, translated by Malcolm Coad, I Dreamt the Snow was Burning, London: Readers International, →ISBN, page 60:
  [W]e're unputdownable, like Alcayaga said up 'til last night, and now here we all are happy, unputdownable, dearest old skinny bosom-buddy, you've collapsed on us so early in the morning like a sack of spuds, [...]
- 1989, Robert Barnard, Death and the Chaste Apprentice (Collins Crime Club), London: Collins, →ISBN; republished as Death and the Chaste Apprentice‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: Scribner, 2014, →ISBN:
  Des Capper blinked, as if he has been hit with a dictionary. But he was unputdownable, at the same time giving the impression that he was registering all the snubs.
- 1991, Andrew Yule, Losing the Light: Terry Gilliam and the Munchausen Saga, New York, N.Y.: Applause Books, →ISBN, page 56:
  Only someone with enormous unputdownable optimism would ever have embarked on a project like this.
- 2005, Mike Hally, Electronic Brains: Stories from the Dawn of the Computer Age, London: Granta, →ISBN:
  But she also remembers Phillips as someone who ‘people liked to be a bit scornful of, the kind of man they would like to put down, although he was unputdownable’.
(specifically) Of a book or other written work: so captivating or engrossing that one cannot bear to stop reading it.
Synonym: page-turning

Antonyms: putdownable, put-downable
- 1947 January 5, Raymond Chandler, “To Charles Morton”, in Frank MacShane, editor, Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, published 1981, →ISBN:
  I found it absolutely (or almost) unputdownable and at the same time as complete a waste of time in a sense as one of [Erle Stanley] Gardner's Perry Mason stories, which I also find unputdownable.
- 1975, The University of Windsor Review, Windsor, Ont.: University of Windsor Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14:
  Now begins the allurement of the ‘unputdownable’ text. But is it unputdownable? The author must spin out and embroider the theme of a demoniacally possessed girl for all that it is worth.
- 1990 February 25, Richard Dawkins, “Wonderful Life by Stephen J. Gould [book review]”, in The Sunday Telegraph‎^[2], London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 6 March 2005:
  To make unputdownable an intricate, technical account of the anatomies of worms, and other inconspicuous denizens of a half-billion-year-old sea, is a literary tour-de-force. But the theory that [Stephen Jay] Gould wrings out of his fossils is a sorry mess.
- 2006 November 28, Janet Maslin, “Geneticists gone wild. What’s the world to do?”, in The New York Times‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 January 2018:
  Since "Next" is one of Mr. [Michael] Crichton's more un-put-downable novels, the reader may experience some frustration. It's tempting to stop and look up each of the genetic, legal and ethical aberrations described here in order to see how wild a strain of science fiction is afoot. Save a step. Just believe this: Oddity after oddity in "Next" checks out, and many are replays of real events.
- 2013 January 21, Alan Titchmarsh, “Keeping a diary is hard work”, in The Daily Telegraph‎^[4], London: Telegraph Media Group, →ISSN, →OCLC:
  [James] Lees-Milne does not always show himself off in a good light, and he is by turns self-aggrandising, cruel, dismissive, mean-spirited and totally un-put-downable (though there will be occasions when you want to throw his books across the room with some force).

Alternative forms

un-put-downable

Translations

difficult or impossible to put down

Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: berxweder (ku), neşkê, xweragir (ku)
Serbo-Croatian: ne može se ispustiti iz ruku (idiom)

of a book, etc.: so captivating or engrossing that one cannot bear to stop reading it

Estonian: käestpandamatu
Greek: ενδιαφέρων (el) (endiaféron)
Hungarian: letehetetlen (hu)
Kurdish:
Northern Kurdish: destjêvenebar
Serbo-Croatian: ne može se ispustiti iz ruku c pl (idiom)

References

^ “unputdownable, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2014; “unputdownable, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1] “unputdownable, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2014; “unputdownable, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[1]