Think of it as: something pushes and you have no way to push back. You may want to resist, you may even try — but the resisting does not work.
From the word’s history
From ir- (not) + resistible; resist goes back to Latin re- (back) + sistere (to stand, to make stand). The picture inside the word is literally 'you cannot stand against it'.
這個字是 ir-（不）+ resistible（可抵抗的）組成的；resist 來自拉丁文 re-（回、反）+ sistere（站住、使站立），字面是「站著擋回去」。所以 irresistible 裡藏的畫面比較像：你站不住、擋不回去——這正好就是現代兩個用法共同的核心。
Wiktionary etymology tree supplied in the payload (Latin in- / ir- + re- + *steh₂- 'to stand', via sistō)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
irresistibleadj/ˌɪɹ.ɪˈzɪs.tə.bəl/
- 1
Impossible to resist.
- Where the breakdown of traditional authority set the poor of the earth on the march, where they left the obscurity of their misfortunes and streamed upon the market-place, their furor seemed as irresistible as the motion of the stars, a torrent rushing forward with elemental force and engulfing a whole world.
- Though his account of written communication over the past 5,000 years necessarily has a powerful forward momentum, his diversions down the fascinating byways of the subject are irresistible: at what point did handwriting begin to express individual personality?
- 2
Compellingly attractive.
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。