Penetrate
Pronunciation
Origin
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")).
Full definition of penetrate
Verb
- To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.Light penetrates darkness.
- 1879, Th Du Moncel, The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph, 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.
- Raythings 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. ArnoldThe translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.
- To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
- To insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina or anus.