penetrate
See also: penetrãte
Contents
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
From Latin penetratus, past participle of penetrare (“to put, set, or place within, enter, pierce, penetrate”), from penes (“within, with”) + -trare (as in intrare (“to go in, enter”), from intra (“within”)).
PronunciationEdit
VerbEdit
penetrate (third-person singular simple present penetrates, present participle penetrating, simple past and past participle penetrated)
- To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.
- Light penetrates darkness.
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1879, Th Du Moncel, The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph, Harper, page 166:
- 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.
- (figuratively) To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.
- I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.
- Ray
- things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate
- To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.
- to penetrate one's heart with pity
- M. Arnold
- The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)
- To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
- To insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina or anus. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
enter into
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insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Further readingEdit
- penetrate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- penetrate in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
- penetrate at OneLook Dictionary Search
EsperantoEdit
ItalianEdit
VerbEdit
penetrate
- second-person plural present indicative of penetrare
- second-person plural imperative of penetrare
- feminine plural of penetrato