Impracticable

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ɪmˈpɹaktɪkÉ™b(É™)l/

Origin

From - + practicable.

Full definition of impracticable

Adjective

1. Not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice.
2. Of a passage or road: impassable.
3. (obsolete) Of a person or thing: unmanageable.
• And yet this tough impracticable heart
  Is govern'd by a dainty-finger'd girl ; ...
• H. is a person of extraordinary health & vigor, of unerring perception, & equal expression; and yet he is impracticable, and does not flow through his pen or (in any of our legitimate aqueducts) through his tongue.

Antonyms

• (impossible or difficult in practice) practicable

Derived terms

• impracticability
• impracticableness
• impracticably

Noun

1. (obsolete) An unmanageable person.
• They were not allowed, of course, to join us in the sitting room, partly that their practice might not be disturbed, but principally, that I was looked upon as an utter impracticable.
• The strict constructionists had dwindled to a few impracticables, headed by John Randolph.
• Then there are the gladiators, to whom it is always a battle ; 'tis no matter on which side, they fight for victory; then the heady men, the egotists, the monotones, the steriles, and the impracticables.