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What is "penetrate"

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penetrate
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
penetrate
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
deep
▪ At their heart is the Cheddar Gorge and the famous show caves penetrating deep into the hills.
▪ Those affirmations penetrated deep inside me, filling me with gratitude.
▪ Although they did not succeed in holding much territory, they proved their ability to penetrate deep into SOC-held territory.
▪ Such particles are considered dangerous because they penetrate deep into the lungs, where they can cause disease.
deeply
▪ Top growth will be dead, but frosts are unlikely to have penetrated deeply.
even
▪ Had they even penetrated the licensed taxicabs of London?
▪ Maybe that had even penetrated his thick skull.
▪ With the old keys Charley had penetrated even to her bedroom.
▪ We had even penetrated the ice.
▪ They might have been alone in the mountains, because the passing traffic never even penetrated their minds.
■ NOUN
atmosphere
▪ The weak, fast-moving, easily ablated comets do not penetrate the atmosphere very deeply.
▪ Even quite small bodies can penetrate the tenuous atmosphere of Mars and cause erosive explosions on its surface.
▪ Moreover, the detector would have to be in space, because gamma rays can not penetrate the atmosphere.
▪ Indeed, kilometer-sized bodies will penetrate the atmosphere and impact with the surface almost irrespective of their composition and strength.
▪ The more nearly vertical an object's trajectory, the deeper it penetrates into the atmosphere before catastrophic disruption.
▪ As noted earlier, the ability of an entering body to penetrate the atmosphere and survive deceleration depends on its crushing strength.
layer
▪ I have tried ever since, through writing, to penetrate my own layers of protective skin.
▪ The Magellan radar-mapping mission was designed to penetrate the dense cloud layer and return detailed radar images of the surface geology.
▪ To gain access to her he has to penetrate many layers of permeability.
▪ Sunlight can not penetrate the layer, and heat can not be conducted through it.
▪ Thunder could not penetrate the layers of stone above and around her.
▪ Sunlight penetrates the layers of skin, damaging the collagen and elastic fibres.
▪ The aircraft quivered when it penetrated the thin layers of cloud in its path.
light
▪ The Pin At night, no light penetrates the interior except through stained glass.
▪ When long-life milk is packaged, it is sealed in aseptic boxes that prevent light and air from penetrating.
▪ In water, sonar is essential for long distance perception, for light can not penetrate more than sixty feet or so.
▪ The deeper they live, the less red light penetrates compared with blue.
▪ The grey forms allow themselves to be read as clouds, through which stronger light is managing to penetrate.
▪ The browner the water, the less blue light penetrates.
▪ Their enemies, however, are fish that live in water where yellow light penetrates best.
market
▪ This may act as a disincentive to penetrating other national markets.
▪ As Benhamou noted, the industry is starting to penetrate the small office market.
▪ But it predicts massive sales and energy savings only if heat pumps penetrate the space-heating market.
▪ In the 1991 Employee Report, we outlined our plans to penetrate the Middle East market.
skin
▪ Bernice felt something, some force, move through her, penetrating her skin as though it were ether.
▪ The virus can not penetrate the skin, if picked up on the skin from an environmental surface.
▪ Beta particles can penetrate the skin but can be stopped by metal.
▪ Would the cream dissolve fat on contact or penetrate the skin?
▪ Although the infective larvae can penetrate the skin, the infection rarely matures and there is no evidence as yet of transmammary infection.
▪ Sunlight penetrates the layers of skin, damaging the collagen and elastic fibres.
surface
▪ The anomalous heat is thought to be due to solar energy, which penetrates the surface ice in spring and warms the depths.
▪ They do not readily penetrate a panned surface.
▪ If it is plastic it will penetrate the surface, but be careful not to go right through.
wall
▪ Instead of endeavouring to penetrate its ten-foot thick walls, the rebels invited Grenville out to parley.
▪ Outside, the Rippowam River ran so swiftly its roar penetrated the granite walls.
▪ The larvae then penetrate the intestinal wall, and travel through the horse's tissues to organs such as the liver and pancreas.
▪ They are a rare opportunity to penetrate the usual wall of indifference.
▪ This is due to the fact that the bacteria normally used to penetrate the cell walls does not affect them.
▪ It had penetrated the chest wall from the front, and pierced the left ventricle of the heart.
▪ After ingestion and hatching the larvae penetrate the intestinal wall and within 48 hours have reached the liver.
▪ A blocked rainwater gutter leads very quickly to damp penetrating the walls.
water
▪ It is into these, the minute irregularities, that water can not penetrate.
▪ Their enemies, however, are fish that live in water where yellow light penetrates best.
▪ The inability of water to penetrate is the result of a phenomenon known as water tension.
▪ If water can penetrate and collect in joints, the wood will rot quickly unless steps are taken to prevent it.
▪ The cold water penetrated his fur almost at once.
■ VERB
allow
▪ Similarly, granting a carbonaceous object the strength of a stony asteroid would allow it to penetrate to comparable altitudes.
▪ Maps to particular places allow one to penetrate the maze, by appointment as it were.
▪ Position your head over the bowl and cover your head and the bowl with a towel to allow the steam to penetrate.
▪ Cut two diagonal slashes on each side to allow heat to penetrate.
▪ It saves a few pence but it is a weak point that could allow moisture to penetrate.
fail
▪ A Chancellor of the Exchequer who had failed to prevent thieves penetrating his treasury was summarily beaten to death.
▪ Moreover, it had failed to penetrate very deeply in the schools.
▪ Why have they failed to spectacularly to penetrate the mainstream?
▪ One had failed to penetrate airport security at Budapest, got himself arrested and deported.
seem
▪ The chill from the bare wall seemed to penetrate to her bones.
▪ Occasionally he would ask me a question but the answer seemed not to penetrate very far.
▪ He was feeling the clammy cold that seemed to penetrate his thick coat and chill his bones.
▪ The wind was cutting across the open space at great speed, so cold it seemed to penetrate his bones.
▪ Nothing seemed to penetrate Violet's consciousness as she waited for the fight to start.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
penetrating look/eyes/gaze etc
▪ Although most people would have stared at his nose Adam was more struck by his penetrating eyes.
▪ He was from Fukien province, was missionary-trained, and had bright, penetrating eyes.
▪ Matron was equally dignified, with a towering cap of white linen and a penetrating gaze.
▪ Nomatterwhat she did to distract herself, his dark penetrating eyes lingered in her memory as though they'd been branded there.
▪ Take a long hard, and penetrating look into the way you handle your life and the pattern of your partnerships in general.
▪ The woman scrutinized me from across the office, holding her penetrating gaze as I walked toward her.
▪ They were the blackest, brightest, most penetrating eyes I ever saw....
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Dario was attempting to penetrate Nature's mysteries.
▪ He threw a grenade that penetrated the wall of the building and exploded inside.
▪ Islam has penetrated vast parts of Africa and Asia.
▪ Spies had penetrated the highest ranks of both governments.
▪ The barbed wire fences and security shields made the air base very difficult to penetrate.
▪ The bomb penetrated the wall and exploded inside the building.
▪ The fall weather outside penetrated the room.
▪ The sun's rays can penetrate the sea to a depth of twenty metres.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Among computer buyers, the least penetrated group is households earning less than $ 30, 000 a year.
▪ As a general rule, the older and more stable the community, the more difficult it is to penetrate.
▪ But eventually the staff penetrated her resistance and the girl learned to write.
▪ Federal law on segregation had been changed in 1960; the news had yet to penetrate below the Mason-Dixon line.
▪ For years, federal law enforcement officials were reluctant to penetrate the movement.
▪ However, laboratory tests show that Gore-Text can be penetrated by prolonged exposure to rain.
▪ It may then penetrate the side of a tank or fly over the top.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Penetrate

Penetrate \Pen"e*trate\, v. i. To pass; to make way; to pierce. Also used figuratively.

Preparing to penetrate to the north and west.
--J. R. Green.

Born where Heaven's influence scarce can penetrate.
--Pope.

The sweet of life that penetrates so near.
--Daniel.

Penetrate

Penetrate \Pen"e*trate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Penetrated; p. pr. & vb. n. Penetrating.] [L. penetratus, p. p. of penetrare to penetrate; akin to penitus inward, inwardly, and perh. to pens with, in the power of, penus store of food, innermost part of a temple.]

  1. To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to effect an entrance into; to pierce; as, light penetrates darkness.

  2. To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to touch with feeling; to make sensible; to move deeply; as, to penetrate one's heart with pity.
    --Shak.

    The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.
    --M. Arnold.

  3. To pierce into by the mind; to arrive at the inner contents or meaning of, as of a mysterious or difficult subject; to comprehend; to understand.

    Things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate.
    --Ray.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
penetrate

1520s, from Latin penetratus, past participle of penetrare "to put or get into, enter into," related to penitus "within, inmost," penus "innermost part of a temple, store of food," penates "household gods." Related: Penetrated; penetrating.

Wiktionary
penetrate

vb. To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.

WordNet
penetrate

  1. v. pass into or through, often by overcoming resistance; "The bullet penetrated her chest" [syn: perforate]

  2. come to understand [syn: fathom, bottom]

  3. become clear or enter one's consciousness or emotions; "It dawned on him that she had betrayed him"; "she was penetrated with sorrow" [syn: click, get through, dawn, come home, get across, sink in, fall into place]

  4. enter a group or organization in order to spy on the members; "The student organization was infiltrated by a traitor" [syn: infiltrate]

  5. make one's way deeper into ar through; "The hikers did not manage to penetrate the dense forest"

  6. insert the penis into the vagina or anus of; "Did the molester penetrate the child?"

  7. spread or diffuse through; "An atmosphere of distrust has permeated this administration"; "music penetrated the entire building" [syn: permeate, pervade, interpenetrate, diffuse, imbue]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "penetrate".

In this amazing blackness, which only the acetylene torch seemed capable of penetrating, they could make a swift escape.

Russia and the psychological effect of it penetrated into the foreign federations affiliated with the Socialist party of America and gave the Anarcho-Syndicalists, who have joined us in great numbers in the last six months, a chance to split up the Socialist party of America into three groups.

Our adversaries do not deny that even here there is a system of law and penalty: and surely we cannot in justice blame a dominion which awards to every one his due, where virtue has its honour, and vice comes to its fitting shame, in which there are not merely representations of the gods, but the gods themselves, watchers from above, and--as we read--easily rebutting human reproaches, since they lead all things in order from a beginning to an end, allotting to each human being, as life follows life, a fortune shaped to all that has preceded--the destiny which, to those that do not penetrate it, becomes the matter of boorish insolence upon things divine.

I want to take a moment here to respond to the other common concern voiced by my female patients over the years: Second only to cleanliness, many women are resistant to the thought of penetrating their partners due to an odd societal stigma that equates anal stimulation with homosexuality and, hence, emasculation.

Had he carried the apophthegm out into every detail of life, through its moral and social phases, it would have required indeed the eye of the Omniscient to have discerned and penetrated his error.

But instead, they penetrated deep into the inner cerebrum and began to populate the astrocyte cells.

They also found they could weld a short length of DNA on to a bacteriophage, which is a minute organism capable of penetrating the wall of a cell.

Gamesmen of Barish while she asked sensible, penetrating questions in a manner which reminded me much of Himaggery on his better days.

The heady fluid played beguiling tricks as the air cooled and dried it, leaving a hot, penetrating residue that saturated deeply into her fluttery senses.

He felt his inmost secrets plucked from him--his whole soul laid bare--his vanity, belligerency, gallantry--even his mediaeval chivalry, penetrated, and yet illuminated, in that single glance.

He halted and looked at Bett, then went hyperconscious to zlin her speculatively, letting his need rise into his awareness as her replete selyn fields penetrated him.

His glance, more penetrating than his bistouries, looked straight into your soul, and dissected every lie athwart all assertions and all reticences.

I penetrated the Blastula and segued to the thickspace at its nearly hollow center.

In fact, all through the ages man has been imitating the animals in burrowing through the earth, penetrating the waters, and now, at last, flying through the air.

Foot delivered the terrible news at such numbing length and so laden down with homiletical baggage as to beat his auditors into submission before the essential point of what he was saying had even penetrated their minds.