2the unthinkablesomething that is impossible to accept or imagine 难以想象[接受]的事情
Then the unthinkable happened and the boat started to sink.
接着,意想不到的事情发生了,船开始下沉。
It was the job of the committee to think the unthinkable (=plan for unexpected events or situations).
委员会的工作就是要想到意想不到的情况。
Examples from the Corpus
think the unthinkable• Aided by sufficientalcohol, we might all be prepared to start thinking the unthinkable.• But gradually Mr Fox and his alliespersuadedvoters to think the unthinkable.• He is qualified to think the unthinkable and to pose those questions which in normalcircumstances would go unasked.• Once vice-chancellors start to think the unthinkable, then the issue becomes part of the agenda and it becomes harder to retreat.
Examples from the Corpus
unthinkable• The idea of a world without music is unthinkable.• In 1094 however such a future would have seemed unthinkable.• Older women in the developing countries suffered too, but medicalcare for them was unthinkable.• The very philosophy of the Hegelians is therefore not a challenge to society but a way of making such challenge unthinkable.• In those days it was unthinkable for a lady to work outside the home.• The amount of sex on television that we see today would have been unthinkable in previousdecades.• It was unthinkable, of course, to take them this time, but it was a wrench leaving them behind with Polly.• It is unthinkable that anyone would dare to enter the Control Area without permission.• But it is virtually unthinkable that it could end in an acquittal, still less a mistrial.
it would be unthinkable for somebody to do something• Now it would be unthinkable for me tostay anywhere but with the family.