unsinkable

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ sink +‎ -able.

Adjective

unsinkable (comparative more unsinkable, superlative most unsinkable)

1. (chiefly of ships) That cannot be sunk.

   Synonym: sinkproof

   • 1981, Patrick White, Flaws in the Glass: A Self-Portrait‎^[1]:

     Any true Grecophile will understand when I say that the unsinkable condom and the smell of shit which precede the moment of illumination make it more exciting when it happens.

   • 2007, Eric Puchner, “Children of God”, in Music Through the Floor: Stories‎^[2], page 13:

     It was the kind of place with a neon martini glass for a name and an unsinkable turd floating in the toilet.

   • 2008, Adrian Hyland, Moonlight Downs‎^[3]:

     That was the connection, the hook, the key, that was the thought that had been bobbing around like an unsinkable turd in the toilet of my subconscious all night.

   • 2021 December 23, ElizaMcPhee, “Kids' toys, jewellery and a BRICK: The bizarre things Sydneysiders tried to flush down their toilet - wih flushed wet wipes costing $8MILLION a year”, in Daily Mail Australia‎^[4]:

     The Sydney water team are hoping that by showing families the 'unflushable' and 'unsinkable' items, that the environment will be a lot better off.

   • 2023 June 19, Edward Helmore, Leyland Cecco, “Search under way for tourist submarine missing on dive to wreck of Titanic”, in The Guardian‎^[5], →ISSN:

     The RMS Titanic, a British passenger liner which had been marketed as “unsinkable”, sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912, on a route from Britain to the US after being holed by an iceberg, claiming the lives of 1,514 of the 2,224 passengers and crew.

2. (figurative) That cannot be overcome or defeated.

   unsinkable optimism

Derived terms

• unsinkable rubber duck

 

Translations

of a ship: that cannot be sunk

• Finnish: uppoamaton (fi)
• French: insubmersible (fr)
• Greek: αβύθιστος (el) (avýthistos), ακαταβύθιστος (el) m (akatavýthistos)
• Hungarian: elsüllyeszthetetlen (hu)
• Irish: dobháite
• Japanese: 不沈 (fuchin)
• Latin: immersābilis
• Manx: do-vaiht, do-vaih
• Polish: niezatapialny (pl)
• Russian: непотопля́емый (ru) (nepotopljájemyj)
• Swedish: osänkbar (sv)
• Ukrainian: непотоплюваний (nepotopljuvanyj)

Noun

unsinkable (plural unsinkables)

1. A ship that was designed to be unsinkable.
   • 1898 December, Richard Pearson Hobson, “The Sinking of the "Merrimac"”, in Josiah Gilbert Holland, Richard Watson Gilder, editors, The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 57, number 2, page 266:

     As the construction and preparation of the unsinkables would require six weeks or two months , I thought it best to make report of my plan to the admiral before the departure from Key West .

   • 1930, Shane Leslie, Augustine Agar, Jutland: A Fragment of Epic, page x:

     German unsinkables with their penetrating shell and safety magazines? That there was this acute material disparity between this type of ship of both nations there can be no doubt.

   • 1989, William Ratigan, Great Lakes Shipwrecks & Survivals:

     But no large ship has vanished without trace since the whaleback Clifton, another of the “unsinkables” and skippered by Emmet Gallagher of Beaver Island, sailed through a crack in Lake Huron on September 22, 1924, taking all hands — a total of 28— down with her.