incredulous
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin incredulus (“unbelieving”).
Pronunciation
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Adjective
incredulous (comparative more incredulous, superlative most incredulous)
- Skeptical, disbelieving, or unable to believe. [from 16th c.]
- 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Gods of Mars, Chapter 13
- Xodar listened in incredulous astonishment to my narration of the events which had transpired within the arena at the rites of Issus.
- 1986, John le Carré, A Perfect Spy:
- In safe flats and dark restaurants, never the same one twice, we ate quiet meals, exchanged our goods and gazed upon each other with the incredulous contentment that passes between mountaineers when they are standing on the peak.
- 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Gods of Mars, Chapter 13
- Expressing or indicative of incredulity. [from 17th c.]
- 2009, Lua error in Module:quote at line 832: Timestamp |date=03-18-2009 (possibly canonicalized from its original format) could not be parsed; see the documentation for the #time parser function
- Reactions at Sun's campus, an hour's drive from San Francisco, ranged from the fearful to the incredulous.
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- (largely obsolete, now only nonstandard) Difficult to believe; incredible. [from 17th c.]
- 1601, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, III.4:
- Why euery thing adheres togither, that no dramme of a scruple, no scruple of a scruple, no obstacle, no incredulous or vnsafe circumstance [...].
- 1984, Supreme Court of Illinois, opinion in People v Terrell, 459 N.E.2d 1337,[1] quoted in David C. Brody, James R. Acker, and Wayne A. Logan, Criminal Law,[2] Jones & Bartlett Publishers (2001), →ISBN, page 564,
- Faced with these facts, we find it incredulous that [the] defendant had any intent other than the armed robbery of the service station.
- 1601, William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, III.4:
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Skeptical, disbelieving
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difficult to believe; incredible
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