irreclaimable

American  

[ir-i-kley-muh-buhl] / ˌɪr ɪˈkleɪ mə bəl /

adjective

1. incapable of being reclaimed or rehabilitated.

   an irreclaimable swamp; irreclaimable offenders.

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irreclaimable British  

/ ˌɪrɪˈkleɪməbəl /

adjective

1. not able to be reclaimed

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Other Word Forms

• irreclaimability noun
• irreclaimableness noun
• irreclaimably adverb

Etymology

Origin of irreclaimable

First recorded in 1600–10; ir- ² + reclaimable ( def. )

Example Sentences

America lost 56,480 men in Viet Nam, the last irreclaimable body count.

From Time Magazine Archive

He understood that once Cully had slept in freedom for a whole night he would be wild again and irreclaimable.

From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White

I say prosperity rather than competence, for it is probable that no sum could have put order into his affairs or sufficed for his irreclaimable habits of dissipation.

From Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges by Saintsbury, George

In every country there are unfortunately some bad men, who are irreclaimable by kindness or severity.

From Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak by McDougall, Henriette

As for the celebrated Cruikshankian steed, I give him up The Cruikshankian Steed. at once as an utterly irreclaimable and unmanageable brute.

From English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times. by Everitt, Graham