pregnable
Americanadjective
-
capable of being taken or won by force.
a pregnable fortress.
-
open to attack; assailable.
a pregnable argument.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of pregnable
1400–50; late Middle English prenable < Middle French prenable, pregnable, equivalent to pren- (weak stem of prendre to seize, take < Latin pre ( he ) ndere; see prehension) + -able -able; -g- perhaps from obsolete expugnable (in same sense)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Or would the 50-odd Allied divisions still in Britain mount an entirely new thrust at the demonstrably pregnable Atlantic Wall?
From Time Magazine Archive
This rule rigidly defined the Nazis' plan of action in the Balkans: cut Yugoslavia from Greece, pro-Nazi Croatia from anti-Nazi Serbia, pregnable Thrace from defensible central Greece, the tough Greeks from the tough British.
From Time Magazine Archive
Above this is heavy stone work over twelve inches thick, so that the sloping roof was the only part pregnable in an assault with the munitions of war then in use.
From Famous Firesides of French Canada by Alloway, Mary Wilson
Let us assail this castle: it is pregnable: we shall have double honour.
From Chronicle and Romance (The Harvard Classics Series) by Jean Froissart, Thomas Malory, Raphael Holinshed
The newcomer's reserve was indeed pregnable to no assault I could devise.
From The Boss of Little Arcady by Wilson, Harry Leon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
