Both Uses
attain
in
Dreamland
(Auto-generated)
- Mike Evans asked me, and without even really realizing it, I pulled out from under his arm, one quick movement, costing him all the progress he'd slowly attained in the last thirty minutes.†
Chpt 4 *attained = gained or reached something with effort
- "The mermaids represent what is ultimately unattainable by the speaker," Richard said, and the same person in back snickered again, at him.†
Chpt 10unattainable = not able to be gained or reached with effortstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unattainable means not and reverses the meaning of attainable. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
Definitions:
-
(1)
(attain) to gain or reach something with effort
- (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)