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Impracticable   /ɪmprˈæktɪkəbəl/   Listen
adjective
Impracticable  adj.  
1.
Not practicable; incapable of being performed, or accomplished by the means employed, or at command; impossible; as, an impracticable undertaking.
2.
Not to be overcome, persuaded, or controlled by any reasonable method; unmanageable; intractable; not capable of being easily dealt with; used in a general sense, as applied to a person or thing that is difficult to control or get along with. "This though, impracticable heart Is governed by a dainty-fingered girl." "Patriotic but loyal men went away disgusted afresh with the impracticable arrogance of a sovereign."
3.
Incapable of being used or availed of; as, an impracticable road; an impracticable method.
Synonyms: Impossible; infeasible. Impracticable, Impossible. A thing is impracticable when it can not be accomplished by any human means at present possessed; a thing is impossible when the laws of nature forbid it. The navigation of a river may now be impracticable, but not impossible, because the existing obstructions may yet be removed. "The barons exercised the most despotic authority over their vassals, and every scheme of public utility was rendered impracticable by their continued petty wars with each other." "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Impracticable" Quotes from Famous Books



... calculated at five hundred thousand cubic feet in one second—sufficient to fill all the streams in Europe, and swell them to overflowing. No plummet has hitherto sounded the depth of its bed at this point, the force of the stream probably rendering the operation almost impracticable. ...
— The Western World - Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North - and South America • W.H.G. Kingston

... modern times; though I am sorry to say, it seems to be the mode amongst gentlemen to grow fat, and I am told I am at least fourteen pound below the fashion. However, I decrease instead of enlarging, which is extraordinary, as violent exercise in London is impracticable; but I attribute the phenomenon to our evening squeezes at public and private parties. I heard from Ridge this morning (the 14th, my letter was begun yesterday): he says the poems go on as well as can be wished; the seventy-five sent to town are circulated, and a demand for fifty more complied ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, Vol. 1 • Lord Byron, Edited by Rowland E. Prothero

... may be handled to such an extent that the abscess will be forced to develop low down toward the groin, so low that the natural outlet, through the intestine, will be impracticable; under such circumstances an outside opening with drainage is the only choice in ...
— Appendicitis: The Etiology, Hygenic and Dietetic Treatment • John H. Tilden, M.D.

... affected: I am sure she has no feeling for your distresses; and, when you are ruined, she will appear to have no feeling for her own.' Finally, I took his word and honour that he would make an effort, such as I had advised; that he would form a plan of oeconomy, and, if he found it impracticable without my assistance, he would come to Bath in the winter, where I promised to give him the meeting, and contribute all in my power to the retrieval of his affairs — With this mutual engagement we parted; and I shall think myself supremely happy, if, by my means, a worthy man, whom I love ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett

... fidelity in council. Some pressed that with the first fair wind they should sail to the Sound, and so to Norway. They said the Danes would not dare to attack them, although they lay with so great a force right in the way. But the king was a man of too much understanding not to see that this was impracticable. He knew also that Olaf Trygvason had found it quite otherwise, as to the Danes not daring to fight, when he with a few people went into battle against a great body of them. The king also knew that in King Canute's ...
— Heimskringla - The Chronicle of the Kings of Norway • Snorri Sturluson


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