unputdownable

Adjective

unputdownable (comparative more unputdownable, superlative most unputdownable)

1. (informal) Of a person, etc.: difficult or impossible to put down (in various senses).
   • I have known an operating surgeon, because he possessed a medical title, to be elected physician to a county hospital. I have known the surgical staff for years refuse to recognize this irregular. Yet, after all, when he became popular and unputdownable, giving in their isolated adhesions to the...1842 June 17, Robert Hull, “On the Division of Medical Labour”, in The London Medical Gazette, being a Weekly Journal of Medicine and the Collateral Sciences, volume II (New Series; volume XXX...
   • Finally, we appeal to all right-minded playgoers. Let them remember that they have got tongues, and that a vigorous, unmistakeable, un-put-downable hiss is, in a theatre, a potent instrument.1861, The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine: An Illustrated Journal, Combining Practical Information, Instruction, and Amusement, London: S[amuel] O[rchart] Beeton, →OCLC, page 303
2. (informal, specifically) Of a book or other written work: so captivating or engrossing that one cannot bear to stop reading it.
   • I found it absolutely (or almost) unputdownable and at the same time as complete a waste of time in a sense as one of [Erle Stanley] Gardner's Perry Mason stories, which I also find unputdownable.1947 January 5, Raymond Chandler, “To Charles Morton”, in Frank MacShane, editor, Selected Letters of Raymond Chandler, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, published 1981, →ISBN
   • Now begins the allurement of the ‘unputdownable’ text. But is it unputdownable? The author must spin out and embroider the theme of a demoniacally possessed girl for all that it is worth.1975, The University of Windsor Review, Windsor, Ont.: University of Windsor Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14

   Synonyms:

   page-turning

   Antonyms:

   putdownable, put-downable