impregnable
Capable of being impregnated; impregnatable.
Adjective government, military
- Of a fortress or other fortified place: able to withstand all attacks; impenetrable, inconquerable, unvanquishable.
- Unerringly impelling this dead, impregnable, uninjurable wall, and this most buoyant thing within; there swims behind it all a mass of tremendous life, only to be adequately estimated as piled wood is—by the cord; and...
- Jurgis got up, wild with rage; but the door was shut and the great castle was dark and impregnable. - 1905 April–October, Upton Sinclair, chapter XXV, in The Jungle, New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published...
Synonyms: breachless inexpugnable unassailable
Antonyms: pregnable unimpregnable
- Too strong to be defeated or overcome; invincible.
- [A]s for the Friendſhip of the World; […] he may at laſt be no more able to get into the other's Heart, than he is to thruſt his Hand into a Pillar of Braſs. The Man's Affection, amidſt all theſe Kindneſſes done him,...
- And with Bolton suffering a wretched run of five straight home defeats – their worst run in 109 years – Chelsea fans would have been forgiven for expecting a comfortable win. But surely they did not anticipate the ease...
Synonyms: inconquerable unconquerable undefeatable
Antonyms: conquerable defeatable pregnable vincible
Origin
From Late Middle English imprenable, impregnable (“impossible to capture, impregnable”), from Old French imprenable (modern French imprenable (“impregnable”)), from im- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘not’) + prenable (“(military) of a building, position, etc.: takable”) (from prendre (“to take”) + -able (suffix meaning ‘creating an effect or influence’)). Prendre is derived from Latin prēndere, present active infinitive of prēndō, a variant of prehendō (“to catch, lay hold of; to grasp; to grab, snatch; to seize, take”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰed- (“to find; to hold; to seize, take”). The intrusive g in the English word was modelled after words like deign and reign.
Forms
Derived
Adjective Entry 2
- Capable of being impregnated; impregnatable.
- The reproductive strategies of troop members, especially those of impregnable females, are suggested to influence patterns of range use. - 1979 November, Dennis R. Rasmussen, “Correlates of Patterns of Range Use of a...
Antonyms: unimpregnable
Origin
PIE word *h₁én From impregnate (verb) + -able (suffix meaning ‘able or fit to be done’ forming adjectives). Impregnate is either derived from impregnate (“pregnant”, adjective), or from its etymon Medieval Latin or Late Latin impraegnātus (“made pregnant”), past participle of impraegnō (“to make pregnant”), from Latin im- (a variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’)) + praegnāre (“pregnant”) (from praegnāns, a variant of praegnās (“pregnant”), from prae- (prefix meaning ‘before; in front’) + *gnāscor (archaic), nāscor (“to be born; to grow, spring forth; to arise, proceed”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget; to give birth; to produce”)).