Roget's Thesaurus

#471. Impossibility

Nouns

impossibility etc. adj.; what cannot, what can never be; sour grapes; hopelessness etc. 859.

Verbs

be impossible etc. adj.; have no chance whatever. attempt impossibilities; square the circle, wash a blackamoor white; skin a flint; make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, make bricks without straw; have nothing to go upon; weave a rope of sand, build castles in the air, prendre la lune avec les dents [Fr.], extract sunbeams from cucumbers, set the Thames on fire, milk a he-goat into a sieve, catch a weasel asleep, rompre l'anguille au genou [Fr.], be in two places at once.

Adjectives

impossible; not possible etc. 470; absurd, contrary to reason; unlikely; unreasonable etc. 477; incredible etc. 485; beyond the bounds of reason, beyond the bounds of possibility, beyond the realm of possibility; from which reason recoils; visionary; inconceivable etc. (improbable) 473; prodigious etc. (wonderful) 870; unimaginable, inimaginable; unthinkable. impracticable, unachievable; unfeasible, infeasible; insuperable; unsurmountable, insurmountable; unattainable, unobtainable; out of reach, out of the question; not to be had, not to be thought of; beyond control; desperate etc. (hopeless) 859; incompatible etc. 24; inaccessible, uncomeatable, impassable, impervious, innavigable, inextricable; self-contradictory. out of one's power, beyond one's power, beyond one's depth, beyond one's reach, beyond one's grasp; too much for; ultra crepidam [Lat.].

Phrases

the grapes are sour; non possumus [Lat.]; non nostrum tantas componere lites [Lat.] [Vergil]; look for a needle in a haystack, chercher une aiguille dans une botte de foin [Fr.]; il a le mer 'a boire.