impracticable
[im-prak-ti-kuh-buh l]
adjective
not practicable; incapable of being put into practice with the available means: an impracticable plan.
unsuitable for practical use or purposes, as a device or material.
(of ground, places, etc.) impassable.
(of persons) hard to deal with because of stubbornness, stupidity, etc.
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The Lost Language of Love and CourtshipTo modern ears, the following excerpt from Anthony Trollope’s He Knew He Was Right, published in 1869, sounds risqué. Trollope writes: It is not pleasant to make love in the presence of a third person, even when that love is all fair and above board; but it is quite impracticable to do so to a married lady, when that married lady’s sister is present. As …
RELATED WORDS
Nearby words
- impoundment,
- impoverish,
- impoverished,
- impoverishment,
- impower,
- impractical,
- imprecate,
- imprecation,
- imprecise,
- imprecision
Origin of impracticable
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for impracticable
impracticable
adjective
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
impracticable
"incapable of being done," 1670s, from assimilated form of in- (1) "not, opposite of" + practicable. Earlier in a sense of "impassable" (1650s).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper