penetrate
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈpɛnɪtɹeɪt/
ipa: /ˈpɛnətɹeɪt/
Forms: form: penetrates
form: penetrating
form: penetrated
form: penetrated
Etymology: From Latin penētrātus, perfect passive participle of penētrō (“to put, set, or place within, enter, pierce, penetrate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from penes (“within, with”) by analogy to intrō (“to go in, enter”). Compare French pénétrer.
Senses: examples: text: Light penetrates darkness.
text: He takes the prepared charcoal used by artists, brings it to a white heat, and suddenly plunges it in a bath of mercury, of which the globules instantly penetrate the pores of charcoal, and may be said to metallize it.
ref: 1879, Th Du Moncel, The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph, Harper, page 166:
text: Considerable interest has developed within the defense community during recent years in weapons that are capable of penetrating some distance into the earth before detonating. […] To be generally effective, earth penetrating weapons (EPW) must be capable of penetrating various geologic targets, ranging from soil to rock, without producing critical damage to the payload.
ref: 1978 November, H. E. Read [et al.], “Preface”, in CAPRI: A Two-dimensional Eulerian Code for Analyzing the Impact of Highly Deformable Projectiles into Rock: Final Report for Period 15 November 1975 – 30 September 1976 (DNA 4751F), Washington, D.C.: Defense Nuclear Agency, →OCLC, page 7:
text: and they, ... they .... fly though space, and they penetrate the atmosphere[…]after an amazing nine-month journey
ref: 2013, Space Babies:
text: Our results also identified the causative mutation of polydactylous Silkie was not exist in other nonpolydactyly chickens, suggesting that SNP of polydactyly in Silkie has fully penetrated all other indigenous Chinese chicken breeds.
ref: 2016 February 10, “Parallel Evolution of Polydactyly Traits in Chinese and European Chickens”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI:
text: Fire ants circumvented the problem of an ineffective sting by having an unusual and highly effective venom that when daubed or sprayed on other ants penetrates their waxy protective integumental barrier and kills or disables them.
ref: 2016, Justin O. Schmidt, The Sting of the Wild, Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 102:
glosses: To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.
examples: text: I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.
text: things which here were […]too subtile for us to penetrate
ref: 1691, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.
examples: text: to penetrate one's heart with pity
text: The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.
ref: 1867, Matthew Arnold, On the Study of Celtic Literature:
text: I am advised to give her music o' mornings; they say it will penetrate
ref: 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:
glosses: To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.
glosses: To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
examples: text: a male elephant comes up and penetrates the female
text: His weapons have been destroyed; his body has been or can be penetrated. In other words, he is rapable.
ref: 2005, Patricia Vettel-Becker, Shooting from the hip: photography, masculinity, and postwar America:
glosses: To insert the penis into an orifice, such as a vagina, mouth, or anus.
topics: board-games
chess
games
glosses: To move a piece past the defending pieces of one's opponent.
Derived terms: impenetrate
interpenetrate
nonpenetrated
overpenetrate
penetrable
penetrance
penetratee
penetrating fluid
penetrating oil
penetration
penetrator
repenetrate
underpenetrated
unpenetrated
Related terms: double-penetrate