impinge
To make a physical impact on.
Verb
- To make a physical impact on.
- Loud noise can impinge on the eardrum, causing temporary hearing damage.
- The ordinary rocks upon which such men do impinge and precipitate themselves, are cards, dice, hawks, and hounds […] - 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition,...
- [...] are bent up at right angles to the plate to form flanges which impinge the opposite sides of the nut, thus preventing the latter from turning. It is evident that the bolt-body proper is in no way mutilated or...
- To interfere with.
- For example, if the trophic fibre is impinged there would be too much or too little gastric juice; if the motor fibre is impinged the muscular contractions of the stomach would be lessened; if the sensory fibre is...
- It is astonishing that the meaning of a single declarative sentence enshrined in the Bill of Rights has evaded judicial construction establishing, at a minimum, some bedrock level of state sovereignty upon which the...
- To have an effect upon, especially a negative one.
- Near-synonym: infringe
- “I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity.[…]” - 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in...
- Nothing in the next-door world of Dachau impinged on the great winter cycle of Beethoven chamber music played in Munich. - 1971, George Steiner, “In a Post-Culture”, in In Bluebeard's Castle:
Origin
Borrowed from Latin impingō (“dash against, impinge”). Compare impact, derived from the perfect passive participle of impingō.