Definition of "irredeemable"

It wavered an instant—then there was a heartrending crash—and the canary-coloured cart, their pride and their joy, lay on its side in the ditch, an irredeemable wreck.

1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons

She was horribly frightened; but she had pledged her word now, and it was irredeemable.

1909, Arthur Quiller-Couch, chapter 2, in True Tilda

The subscribers to a new loan, who mean generally to sell their subscription as soon as possible, prefer greatly a perpetual annuity, redeemable by parliament, to an irredeemable annuity, for a long term of years, of only equal amount.

1776, Adam Smith, chapter 3, in The Wealth of Nations

Investors have always had to trust somebody or something. . But they have not always had to make a leap of faith about a nation's irredeemable paper currency. Up until Aug. 15, 1971 the dollar was exchangeable into gold at the rate of $35 to the ounce.

2005 October 31, James Grant, “O Sage! O Confidence Man!”, in Forbes, retrieved 17 August 2010