IRRESISTIBLE

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Overpoweringly attractive

Example:

irresistible beauty

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

attractive (pleasing to the eye or mind especially through beauty or charm)

Derivation:

irresistibility; irresistibleness (the quality of being overpowering and impossible to resist)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Impossible to resist; overpowering

Example:

what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?

Synonyms:

irresistible; resistless

Classified under:

Adjectives

Similar:

overpowering; overwhelming (so strong as to be irresistible)

Antonym:

resistible (capable of being resisted or withstood or frustrated)

Derivation:

irresistibility; irresistibleness (the quality of being overpowering and impossible to resist)

Credits

Context examples:

It was that foolish, irresistible Latin impulse to be dramatic which brought his own downfall.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He waved his hands frantically to her, and then vanished from the window so suddenly that it seemed to her that he had been plucked back by some irresistible force from behind.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The world itself was not so amazing because of the atoms and molecules that composed it according to the propulsions of irresistible force; what made it amazing was the fact that Ruth lived in it.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This argument was irresistible.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I could not unlove him, because I felt sure he would soon marry this very lady—because I read daily in her a proud security in his intentions respecting her—because I witnessed hourly in him a style of courtship which, if careless and choosing rather to be sought than to seek, was yet, in its very carelessness, captivating, and in its very pride, irresistible.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Catherine, meanwhile, undisturbed by presentiments of such an evil, or of any evil at all, except that of having but a short set to dance down, enjoyed her usual happiness with Henry Tilney, listening with sparkling eyes to everything he said; and, in finding him irresistible, becoming so herself.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

And at Michaelmas, perhaps, a fourth may be added: some small hunting-box in the vicinity of everything so dear; for as to any partnership in Thornton Lacey, as Edmund Bertram once good-humouredly proposed, I hope I foresee two objections: two fair, excellent, irresistible objections to that plan.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Wear your new things on the trip I hope you will take after the new moon February 23, when you will be irresistible.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

"These bits of lace are fastened under the chin with a rosebud, so," and Meg illustrated by putting on the bonnet and regarding him with an air of calm satisfaction that was irresistible.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And all this was said with a truth and sincerity of feeling irresistible.