Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Impervious \Im*per"vi*ous\, a. [L. impervius; pref. im- not + per through + via way. See Voyage.] Not pervious; not admitting of entrance or passage through; as, a substance impervious to water or air.
This gulf impassable, impervious.
--Milton.
The minds of these zealots were absolutely impervious.
--Macaulay.
Syn: Impassable; pathless; impenetrable; imperviable; impermeable. -- Im*per"vi*ous*ly, adv. -- Im*per"vi*ous*ness, n.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1640s, from Latin impervius "that cannot be passed through," from assimilated form of in- "not, opposite of" (see in- (1)) + pervius "letting things through," from per "through" + via "road." Related: Imperviously; imperviousness.
Wiktionary
a. unaffected or unable to be affected by.
WordNet
adj. not admitting of passage or capable of being affected; "a material impervious to water"; "someone impervious to argument" [syn: imperviable] [ant: pervious]
Usage examples of "impervious".
Nor was Adams like George Washington immensely popular, elected unanimously, and all but impervious to criticism.
As Lady Appleton began to speak, introducing herself to her new neighbors and explaining that she wished to hire servants and purchase foodstuffs, Jennet sensed invisible barriers going up, dense as any stone wall and just as impervious to sweet reason.
It contains the coarsest and most uneatable of fish, such as the cat-fish and such genus, and as you descend, its banks are occupied with the fetid alligator, while the panther basks at its edge in the cane-brakes, almost impervious to man.
The Ochoan soldiers in defensive positions above the castles had been wearing goggles and earmuffs that made them impervious to the power.
Marcos, born in the East and educated among the sun-baked plains and fierce heats of Aragon, remained to a large extent impervious to the rising temperature.
In part of one old volume of court records, the ink, while not injuring the paper or becoming illegible upon the face of the leaves, has gradually become legible upon the reverse, while the heavy paper has been impervious to the other inks used.
Impervious to vacuum, the Nasat engineer was of course naked to space.
He had thoroughly snubbed the impervious Ramsbottom and poor, sensitive Mr.
Oakbrush and serviceberry had closed ranks, creating a wall impervious to the moonlight.
In a moment they understood each other--one second sufficed to cause the before impervious veil to fall at their feet: they had stept beyond this common-place world, and stood beside each other in the new and mysterious region of which Love is emperor.
Low cedars with black needles, a variety impervious to frosts that had been developed for the subantarctic regions, sang solemnly and monotonously in the never-slackening wind.
But a shielded swooper, while impervious to the dis ray, was helpless against squadrons of Han aircraft, for the Hans developed a technique of playing their beams underneath the swooper in such fashion as to suck it down flutteringly into the vacuum so created, until they brought it more or less violently to earth.
Five decades of running traplines for nutria and muskrat had left him rangy and quick, impervious to injury.
Experiments were conducted early in the nineteenth century with various materials in an effort to find a covering for the wires which would be both a non-conductor of electricity and impervious to water.
The Atreid brothers never change their view of things once it is formed, they are quite impervious to physical realities.