Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Impracticable

Im·prac′ti·ca·ble (ĭm·prăk′tĭ·kȧ·b'l), a. 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. Rowe.

Patriotic but loyal men went away disgusted afresh with the impracticable arrogance of a sovereign. Palfrey.

3. Incapable of being used or availed of; as, an impracticable road; an impracticable method.

Syn. — 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." Mickle. "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." Matt. xix. 26.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.