penetrate
/ˈpɛnɪtɹeɪt/ verb B2- To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce. · Light penetrates darkness.
- To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand. · I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.
- To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply. · to penetrate one's heart with pity
- To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
- To insert the penis into an orifice, such as a vagina, mouth, or anus. · a male elephant comes up and penetrates the female
- To move a piece past the defending pieces of one's opponent.
He/she/it penetrates · Past penetrated · Past participle penetrated · -ing form penetrating
Verb forms
- Base form
- penetrate
- He/she/it
- penetrates
- Past
- penetrated
- Past participle
- penetrated
- -ing form
- penetrating
From the library
“It’s pretty maddening to think that an important secret may lie here on this slip of paper, and that it is beyond human power to penetrate it.”
“Dear me, Watson, is it possible that you have not penetrated the fact that the case hangs upon the missing dumb-bell?
I have been trying some experiments after you left us this afternoon, and I find that no noise which MacDonald can make in the study can penetrate to me in the pantry when the doors are all shut.
It would not be very loud, and yet in the silence of the night it should have easily penetrated to Mrs.
Learn penetrate in real texts
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