| Library / English Dictionary |
INCREDULOUS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Not disposed or willing to believe; unbelieving
Classified under:
Similar:
disbelieving; sceptical; skeptical; unbelieving (denying or questioning the tenets of especially a religion)
Also:
incredible; unbelievable (beyond belief or understanding)
distrustful (having or showing distrust)
Antonym:
credulous (disposed to believe on little evidence)
Derivation:
incredulity (doubt about the truth of something)
Context examples:
"You would be strangely incredulous if you did doubt it," was my mental comment.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Elizabeth looked at her sister with incredulous solicitude, but said nothing.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
The magistrate appeared at first perfectly incredulous, but as I continued he became more attentive and interested; I saw him sometimes shudder with horror; at others a lively surprise, unmingled with disbelief, was painted on his countenance.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
But now the shock which had come upon him was so great that he could only stand with white cheeks and staring, incredulous eyes.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Martin's philosophy asserted itself, dissipating his anger, and he hung up the receiver with a long whistle of incredulous amusement.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Mind you don't, said Bessie; and when she had ascertained that I was really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Abbot stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully on my face, as incredulous of my sanity.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
With many compliments to them, and much self-gratulation on the prospect of a connection between the houses, he unfolded the matter—to an audience not merely wondering, but incredulous; for Mrs. Bennet, with more perseverance than politeness, protested he must be entirely mistaken; and Lydia, always unguarded and often uncivil, boisterously exclaimed: Good Lord! Sir William, how can you tell such a story?
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
"An Oxford man!" He was incredulous. "Like hell he is! He wears a pink suit."
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
A pause. Then Tom's voice, incredulous and insulting: You must have gone there about the time Biloxi went to New Haven.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
With an effort I managed to restrain my incredulous laughter. The very phrases were worn so threadbare that they evoked no image except that of a turbaned "character" leaking sawdust at every pore as he pursued a tiger through the Bois de Boulogne.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
