incurable

incurable
    adj 1: incapable of being cured; "an incurable disease"; "an
           incurable addiction to smoking" [ant: {curable}]
    2: unalterable in disposition or habits; "an incurable optimist"
    n 1: a person whose disease is incurable
    

Incurable \In*cur"a*ble\, a. [F. incurable, L. incurabilis. See
   {In-} not, and {Curable}.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. Not capable of being cured; beyond the power of skill or
      medicine to remedy; as, an incurable disease.
      [1913 Webster]

            A scirrhus is not absolutely incurable. --Arbuthnot.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Not admitting or capable of remedy or correction;
      irremediable; remediless; as, incurable evils.
      [1913 Webster]

            Rancorous and incurable hostility.    --Burke.
      [1913 Webster]

            They were laboring under a profound, and, as it
            might have seemed, an almost incurable ignorance.
                                                  --Sir J.
                                                  Stephen.

   Syn: Irremediable; remediless; irrecoverable; irretrievable;
        irreparable; hopeless.
        [1913 Webster]
    

Incurable \In*cur"a*ble\, n.
   A person diseased beyond cure.
   [1913 Webster]
    

53 Moby Thesaurus words for "incurable":
      apoplectic, arthritic, beyond recall, beyond remedy, case,
      consumptive, cureless, dyspeptic, epileptic, fatal, gone, habitual,
      hopeless, immedicable, impossible, incorrigible, inoperable,
      inpatient, invalid, inveterate, irreclaimable, irrecoverable,
      irredeemable, irreformable, irremediable, irreparable,
      irretrievable, irreversible, irrevocable, lost, outpatient,
      past hope, past praying for, patient, relentless, remediless,
      rheumatic, ruined, shut-in, sick person, spastic, sufferer,
      terminal, terminal case, the sick, uncorrectable, undone,
      unflagging, unmitigable, unrelievable, unsalvable, unsalvageable,
      valetudinarian