- indefatigable
- indefatigable, tireless, weariless, untiring, unwearying, unwearied, unflagging are comparable in their basic meaning of not feeling or manifesting fatigue, but they are closer synonyms in their extended sense of capable of prolonged and arduous effort.Indefatigable implies being incapable of being fatigued, but in its actual use it usually suggests persistent and unremitting activity or effort{
the indefatigable pursuit of an unattainable perfection— L. P. Smith
}{the strenuous, persevering, and absolutely in-defatigable champion of every victim of oppression— John Morley
}Tireless and weariless are sometimes em-ployed with little distinction from indefatigable; frequently, however, they connote less busyness and even greater or more remarkable power of continuance{the tireless sweep of the eagle's flight
}{a man of distinguished presence and tireless industry— H. U. Faulkner
}{was not Arnold the tireless critic of his country and his age, the lifelong arraigner of British limitedness and com-placency?— Montague
}{a sturdy Dissenter, a weariless promoter of godliness— Times Lit. Sup.
}Untiring and unwearying differ from tireless in carrying a stronger implication of uninterrupted activity; often they specifically suggest an extraordinary ability to go on continuously and without a break while tireless and weariless, by contrast, often imply repeated returns over a very long course of time{an untiring search for a lost child
}{tireless efforts to attract attention
}{untiring devotion to a cause
}{the tireless reiteration of a call
}{the unwearying pursuit of an ideal
}{to the end of his life he was an untiring worker— McGiffert
}Unwearied differs little from untiring in its meaning, but it is more often applied directly to the person or thing concerned than to the activity engaged in{1, so long a worshipper of nature, hither came unwearied in that service— Wordsworth
}{the unwearied and disinterested seeker after truth— Jowett
}{men who recalled the days of the Armada did not feel proud over James's unwearied appeasement of Spain— Bush
}Unflagging differs little from tireless, for it too stresses a display of power to continue without signs of weariness; but it also stresses no diminution of activity, and it applies to a person's powers rather than to the person himself{unflagging attention
}{a purpose . . . which he pursued with unflagging energy— Froude
}{such a hold on the imaginations of scholars . . . that they pursued it with unflagging zeal— Southern
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
