Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Difficult or impossible to endure; intolerable.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not sufferable; not to be endured; intolerable; unbearable: as, insufferable cold or heat; insufferable wrongs.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Incapable of being suffered, borne, or endured; insupportable; unendurable; intolerable
  • adjective Offensive beyond endurance; detestable.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not sufferable; very difficult or impossible to endure.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (used of persons or their behavior) unbearably arrogant or conceited
  • adjective too extreme to bear

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

in- +‎ sufferable

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Examples

  • I'm not sure the term insufferable boor is quite adequate here, I'm not saying that he's entirely without humor, but it's the sort of humor that is always tempered by a reminder of how much money he has and how he is holding it over his adult children.

    outfoxed Diary Entry outfoxed 2002

  • If we adhere to a standard of misery and continue to compare our suffering, then we will remain insufferable.

    The Standard of Misery | Heretical Ideas Magazine 2009

  • I grant that the manners of the Fins to the Russians are described as insufferable both by the Swedes and the Russians, and that we never listened to the Russian side of that story.

    New York Times, Current History, Vol 1, Issue 1 From the Beginning to March, 1915 With Index Various

  • In his 840-page memoir, "The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace," published in 2004, he harshly criticized both former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (who was "insufferable" because of his uncompromising views, Ross said) and then-Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat for failing to relinquish their mutual "myths."

    Obama's Peace Offensive 2009

  • What is really "insufferable" is the Obama Cult that sees Obama as some form of Savior, The Chosen One per Oprah and Farrakhan.

    Dean: I Want Supers To Announce Their Endorsements "Starting Now" 2009

  • One amusing result about all of this is how they view Olbermann as, by and large, "insufferable".

    Mickey Kaus leaks a JournoList thread. Ann Althouse 2009

  • What is really "insufferable" is the Obama Cult that sees Obama as some form of Savior, The Chosen One per Oprah and Farrakhan.

    Dean: I Want Supers To Announce Their Endorsements "Starting Now" 2009

  • Do you really expect to be taken seriously when you start a comment with "What is really" insufferable "is the Obama Cult that sees Obama as some form of Savior, The Chosen One per Oprah and Farrakhan."

    Dean: I Want Supers To Announce Their Endorsements "Starting Now" 2009

  • Sweet moment 1 Yesterday I had a shocking headache and had to take to my bed like some kind of insufferable hypochondriac.

    March 2006 2006

  • Sweet moment 1 Yesterday I had a shocking headache and had to take to my bed like some kind of insufferable hypochondriac.

    Caring and sharing 2006

Comments

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  • THERE’S nothing wrong with self-pity. As a spur to songwriting, it’s right up there with lust, anger and greed, and probably better than the remaining deadly sins. There’s nothing wrong, either, with striving for musical grandeur, using every bit of skill and studio illusion to create a sound large enough to get lost in. Male sensitivity, a quality that’s under siege in a pop culture full of unrepentant bullying and machismo, shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand, no matter how risible it can be in practice. And building a sound on the lessons of past bands is virtually unavoidable.

    But put them all together and they add up to Coldplay, the most insufferable band of the decade.

    August 11, 2007

  • All their songs on the most recent album I was subjected to sound the same.

    August 11, 2007