Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Incapable of being paid.

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

  • adjective That cannot be paid.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word unpayable.

Examples

  • I know there were discussions here about what term to use, about whether to use the term unpayable, and about whether the debt is unpayable under specific conditions.

    INTERNATIONAL STUDENT CONFERENCE 1988

  • I know there were discussions here about what term to use, about whether to use the term unpayable, and about whether the debt is unpayable under specific conditions.

    CASTRO HOLDS DIALOGUE WITH STUDENTS 1988

  • "I will most readily accompany you to his abode," said the lady, "not that I wish that either of us should unburthen ourselves of our debt, which, being no less than your life, must remain unpayable ever.

    I.5 1826

  • In 2009, it held $154 million that it had called "unpayable," including $66 million for bad or missing data and $43 million held for artists who had not filed paperwork.

    NYT > Home Page By BEN SISARIO 2011

  • The Jubilee 2000 solution: debts reckoned "unpayable" by independent arbiters should be written off, but with safeguards to ensure that the debtors won't squander savings.

    Is It Payback Time? 2008

  • Latin America's "unpayable" foreign debt poses for world peace.

    CASTRO DISCUSSES CENTRAL AMERICA, DISARMAMENT 1985

  • If that traffic is blocked, as it inevitably is blocked, by the dislocations that follow wars, such as unpayable debts, which create in their turn a maldistribution of monetary gold, which involves in its turn dislocation of the whole credit and monetary system, disorganization of the exchanges - if that sort of thing happens, then material ceases to be wealth.

    Sir Norman Angell - Nobel Lecture 1933

  • Facing an unpayable debt of two billion yuan $314 million in mid-September, Mr. Hu fled to the United States for 20 days.

    The Wrong Way to Fix Wenzhou Christopher Carothers 2011

  • Sooo, what ends up happening is that some smart people realize that "hey, one of these days the bubble is going to collapse", so they naturally sell off their houses and stocks, and then other people panic and start selling off, and the next thing you know the housing market has collapsed and you are stuck with two unsellable houses and two unpayable mortgages.

    Tom McIntyre Explains His Picks for our 2009 Hunting and Fishing Heroes and Villians Face-Off 2009

  • A poorly designed exchange could send many insurers into a death spiral of unpayable claims, hastening consolidation, reducing competition, and increasing the political demand for government to run everything.

    'Exchange' You Can't Believe In 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.