impracticable

English

Etymology

From im- +‎ practicable.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ɪmˈpɹaktɪkəb(ə)l/

Adjective

impracticable (comparative more impracticable, superlative most impracticable)

1. Not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice.
2. Of a passage or road: impassable.
3. (obsolete) Of a person or thing: unmanageable.
   • 1713, Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent^[1], published 1797:

     And yet this tough impracticable heart / Is govern'd by a dainty-finger'd girl ; […]

   • c. 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks^[2], published 1960, page 18:

     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

Translations

not practicable

Dutch: onuitvoerbaar French: impraticable (fr) m. and f.

German: unausführbar Romanian: impracticabil (ro), nepracticabil (ro)

impassable

Dutch: onbegaanbaar, onberijdbaar

French: impraticable (fr) m. and f.

Noun

impracticable (plural impracticables)

1. (obsolete) An unmanageable person.
   • 1829, Henry Barkley Henderson, The Bengalee, or Sketches of Society and Manners in the East^[3], page 13:

     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.

   • 1867, James Parton, Famous Americans of Recent Times^[4], page 83:

     The strict constructionists had dwindled to a few impracticables, headed by John Randolph.

   • 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude^[5], page 187:

     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.