N. impossibility, what cannot, what can never be, sour grapes, hopelessness

V. be impossible, 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, 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, be in two places at once

Adj. impossible, not possible, absurd, contrary to reason, unlikely, unreasonable, incredible, beyond the bounds of reason, beyond the bounds of possibility, beyond the realm of possibility, from which reason recoils, visionary, inconceivable, prodigious, 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, incompatible, 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

Phr. the grapes are sour, non possumus, non nostrum tantas componere lites, look for a needle in a haystack, chercher une aiguille dans une botte de foin, il a le mer boire

N. absurdity, absurdness, imbecility, alogy|, nonsense, utter nonsense, paradox, inconsistency, stultiloquy, stultiloquence, nugacity, blunder, muddle, bull, irishism|, hibernicism|, slipslop, anticlimax, bathos, sophism, farce, galimathias, amphigouri, rhapsody, farrago, betise, extravagance, romance, sciamachy, sell, pun, verbal quibble, macaronic, jargon, fustian, twaddle, gibberish, exaggeration, moonshine, stuff, mare's nest, quibble, self-delusion, vagary, tomfoolery, poppycock, mummery, monkey trick, boutade, escapade

V. play the fool, talk nonsense, parler a tort et a travess, battre la campagne, ἀνεμώλια βάζειν be -absurd

Adj. absurd, nonsensical, preposterous, egregious, senseless, inconsistent, ridiculous, extravagant, quibbling, self-annulling, self- contradictory, macaronic, punning, foolish, sophistical, unmeaning, without rhyme or reason, fantastic

Phr. credat judaeus apella, tell it to the marines, faculties

Int. fiddlededee, pish, pho, "in the name of the prophet—figs!"

N. want of -intelligence, want of - intellect, shadowness, silliness, foolishness, imbecility, incapacity, vacancy of mind, poverty of intellect, weakness of intellect, clouded perception, poor head, apartments to let, stupidity, stolidity, hebetude, dull understanding, meanest capacity, shortsightedness, incompetence, one's weak side, not one's strong point, bias, infatuation, simplicity, puerility, babyhood, dotage, anility, second childishness, fatuity, idiocy, idiotism, driveling, folly, frivolity, irrationality, trifling, ineptitude, nugacity, inconsistency, lip wisdom, conceit, sophistry, giddiness, eccentricity, extravagance, rashness, act of folly, b, be - imbecile, have no -brains, have no sense, trifle, drivel, radoter, dote, ramble, play the fool, play the monkey, monkey around, fool around, take leave of one's senses (insanity) 503, not see an inch beyond one's nose, stultify oneself, talk nonsense

Adj. unintelligent, unintellectual, unreasoning, mindless, witless, reasoningless, brainless, halfbaked, having no head, not -bright, inapprehensible, weak headed, addle headed, puzzle headed, blunder headed, muddle headed, muddy headed, pig headed, beetle headed, buffle headed, chuckle headed, mutton headed, maggoty headed, grossheaded, beef headed, fat witted, fat-headed, weak-minded, feeble-minded, dull minded, shallow minded, lack-brained, rattle-brained, rattle headed, half witted, lean witted, short witted, dull witted, blunt-witted, shallow-pated, clod-pated, addle- pated, dim-sighted, short-sighted, thick-skulled, weak in the upper story, shallow, borne, weak, wanting, soft, sappy, spoony, dull, dull as a beetle, stupid, heavy, insulse, obtuse, blunt, stolid, doltish, asinine, inapt, prosaic, hebetudinous, childish, child-like, infantine, infantile, babyish, babish, puerile, anile, simple, old-womanish, fatuous, idiotic, imbecile, driveling, blatant, babbling, vacant, sottish, bewildered, blockish, unteachable boeotian, boeotic, bovine, ungifted, undiscerning, unenlightened, unwise, unphilosophical, apish, simious, foolish, silly, senseless, irrational, insensate, nonsensical, inept, maudlin, narrow-minded, bigoted, giddy, rash, eccentric, foolish, unwise, injudicious, improper, unreasonable, without reason, ridiculous, absurd, idiotic, silly, stupid, asinine, ill-imagined, ill-advised, ill-judged, ill-devised, mal entendu, inconsistent, irrational, unphilosophical, extravagant, sleeveless, idle, pointless, useless, inexpedient, frivolous

Phr. davus sum non, "a fool's bolt is soon shot" clitellae bovi sunt impositae, "fools rush in where angels fear to tread", il n' a ni bouche ni eperon, "the bookful blockhead, ignorantly read", "to varnish nonsense with the charms of sound"