impracticable
English
Etymology
From im- + practicable.
Pronunciation
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 331: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "UK" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ɪmˈpɹaktɪkəb(ə)l/
Adjective
impracticable (comparative more impracticable, superlative most impracticable)
- not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice
- Antonym: practicable
- (of a passage or road) impassable
- (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.
Derived terms
Translations
not practicable
|
impassable
|
Noun
impracticable (plural impracticables)
- (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.
Spanish
Pronunciation
Adjective
impracticable m or f (masculine and feminine plural impracticables)
Categories:
- English terms prefixed with in-
- English 5-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
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- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- Spanish 5-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Spanish lemmas
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