Irrefragable

/ɪˈɹɛfɹəɡəb(ə)l/ · adjective

Meaning

Which cannot be refuted; clearly right, incontrovertible, indisputable, irrefutable..

Definitions by Sense

1. Which cannot be refuted; clearly right, incontrovertible, indisputable, irrefutable.
2. (archaic) Which cannot or should not be broken; indestructible.
3. (obsolete) Of a person: obstinate, stubborn.

Example Sentences

Beſide, what methodicall artiſt would allow the encomium of the foxe in the prayſe of the aſſe, unleſſe I would proove by irrefragable demonſtration, that the falſe fox was a true aſſe: as I once heard a learned phyſician affirme, if a gooſe were a fox, he was a fox.

He knew what's what, and that's as high / As Metaphysick Wit can fly, / In School Divinity as able / As he that hight Irrefragable; […]

In this Kings reign flouriſhed in England, the Irrefragable Doctor Alexander de Hales, who was School-Maſter to the Angelic Dr. Thomas Aquinas.

This is the way to end the vexatious Queſtions about them [the Kingdom of the Picts], being taken out of the moſt authentick Records of Ireland, which are of ſuch irrefragable Authority, That ſome are perſuaded, had they been known to [William] Camden, he would never have diſputed the matter. And ſo I think too. But this irrefragable Authority is that of the Pſalter of Caſhel; […]

[A]ll the preſent compoſers of French comic operas imitate the Italian ſtyle, […] I wiſh this may not, ſometimes, happen in England; but, however that may be, it is certainly an irrefragable proof of the ſuperiority of that melody which is become the common muſical language of all Europe: […]

Bulfinch, a solicitor at Redcastle, came to him with irrefragable proofs of gross peculation on the part of the bailiff who managed the home farm which supplied the house and stables, and showed him that it was necessary to make a thorough investigation and change of system.

[W]e were driven by the circumstances of cold and rainy weather to seek refuge in a saloon, where we had to spend part of our pitiful dole for drink. It will be urged by some critics that we might have gone to the Y. M. C. A., to night school, and to the social circles and homes of young people. The only reply is that we did n't^([sic]). That is the irrefragable fact. We did n't.

Lionel Trilling has cautioned us that an idea derived from reading is not a unitary, irrefragable thing but something modified in its transmission by the cultural community into which it falls, by the response to the language, by the power of understanding of those who receive it and by their purpose and intentions.

Synonyms for irrefragable

Antonyms for irrefragable

Related Words

Word Forms

• more irrefragable
• most irrefragable
• irrefragible

Usage Notes

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