never be; sour grapes; hopelessness &c 859.
V. be impossible &c 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.
Adj. impossible; not possible &c 470; absurd, contrary to reason;
unlikely; unreasonable &c 477; incredible &c 485; beyond the bounds of
reason, beyond the bounds of possibility, beyond the realm of
possibility; from which reason recoils; visionary; inconceivable &c
(improbable) 473; prodigious &c (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 &c (hopeless) 859; incompatible &c 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.].
Phr. 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 à
boire†.