inedible

/ɪnˈɛdɪbəl/

/ɪnˈɛdɪbəl/

The adjective inedible is good for describing a food that cannot be eaten, like your grandmother's burnt toast, or an object that shouldn't be eaten, like your snow boots.

Some things are literally inedible, like your dining room table or a cast iron skillet, while others are described as inedible in a more figurative way: "I can't stand cilantro — now this taco is totally inedible!" The word has been around since the early 1800s to mean "unfit to eat," combining the Latin prefix in, which means "not" or "the opposite," with edibilis, "eatable" in Late Latin.

Definitions of inedible

1. adjective

   not suitable for food
   synonyms: uneatable

   poisonous

   not safe to eat

   indigestible

   (physiology) describing a substance that the body cannot break down, or that is difficult to break down and absorb into the bloodstream

   unpalatable

   not pleasant or acceptable to the taste or mind

   tough

   resistant to cutting or chewing

   antonyms:

   edible

   suitable for use as food

   killable

   fit to kill, especially for food

   non-poisonous, nonpoisonous, nontoxic

   safe to eat

   pareve, parve

   containing no meat or milk (or their derivatives) and thus eatable with both meat and dairy dishes according to the dietary laws of Judaism

   digestible

   capable of being converted into assimilable condition in the alimentary canal

   palatable, toothsome

   acceptable to the taste or mind

   tender

   easy to cut or chew