Irrepressible

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(pronounced ir-ih-pres-uh-bul)  adjective

Definition

1. impossible to repress, restrain, or subdue; incapable of being controlled, put down, or quelled. 2. (as of a thought, desire, feeling, memory, etc.) that cannot be checked or suppressed.

Main Example

• Take any controversy that has graced news headlines since last year and you can bet there’ve been at least a few related tweets from President Trump, usually designed to keep his base galvanized. So, it was uncharacteristic that when Christine Blasey Ford went public with her claim of a sexual assault by Brett Kavanaugh while they were in high school, there was no direct communication from Trump for almost a week. The president’s silence on this explosive issue led many talking heads, including his fiercest critics on MSNBC, to compliment him for his “extraordinary self-restraint.” But thanks to the irrepressible nature of Trump and his tweets, all that admiration evaporated when, on Friday, September 21, five days after Prof. Ford first went public, a hard-hitting Trump tweet cast doubt on her allegation.

Workplace Examples

• The amazing thing about Janice is that in spite of her not having any luck in the job market these past few months--ever since her last employer closed shop--she continues to be so high-spirited. I wonder how she generates her Pollyanna-like irrepressible optimism.
• They’ve wronged our family so much that each time their name appears in public, I am filled with bitterness. Try as I might to forget those wrongs and go back to clean, healthy living, I cannot. The hostile thoughts about them are irrepressible.

Other Examples

• the irrepressible flow of migrants across the Mediterranean, with tens of thousands of Africans leaving their economically depressed homelands to start a new life in Europe
• a single mother of two having irrepressible worries about how she’ll pay the monthly mortgage if she loses her secretarial job at a small, teetering company
• irrepressible laughter; irrepressible enthusiasm; your irrepressible desire to listen to the last recorded message from a loved one who is no more; irrepressible anger at the very mention of a certain politician’s name
• the continuing violence in Afghanistan, thanks to the seemingly irrepressible conflict between its ruling government and the Taliban; 17 years after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, victory still nowhere in sight because the Taliban has turned out to be one irrepressible foe
• the irrepressible Rod Blagojevich who, following his arrest on federal corruption charges and subsequent impeachment, trial, conviction, and removal from the office of Illinois governor, continued to project an exuberant persona in public and even hosted a radio show, greeting his listeners with gusto, before being sent to federal prison to serve his sentence
• in 1979, the Shah of Iran fleeing Tehran after realizing that the revolution was irrepressible

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