impregnate
to cause to be permeated or saturated with a substance: To relieve cold and flu symptoms, impregnate a handkerchief with oils of eucalyptus and mint and inhale its scent.
to fill the interstices, openings, or cells of (a fine network, or the like) with a substance: The stainless steel housing contains a ceramic honeycomb impregnated with platinum, rhodium, and palladium.
to infuse or imbue with some quality or element: Picasso’s later paintings are impregnated with a certain melancholy.The air was pleasantly impregnated with the odor of pines.
Origin of impregnate
1Other words for impregnate
Other words from impregnate
- im·preg·na·tion [im-preg-ney-shuhn], /ˌɪm prɛgˈneɪ ʃən/, noun
- im·preg·na·tor, noun
- im·preg·na·to·ry [im-preg-nuh-tawr-ee], /ɪmˈprɛg nəˌtɔr i/, adjective
- re·im·preg·nate, verb (used with object), re·im·preg·nat·ed, re·im·preg·nat·ing.
- re·im·preg·na·tion, noun
- self-im·preg·nat·ing, adjective
- self-im·preg·na·tion, noun
- self-im·preg·na·tor, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use impregnate in a sentence
If their union is permitted at any other time, and particularly in winter, it is seldom attended with impregnation.
Buffon's Natural History. Volume IX (of 10) | Georges Louis Leclerc de BuffonBut of the supernatural conception of Mary and of her impregnation by a deity we are intensely sceptical.
Ancient Faiths And Modern | Thomas InmanAs far as women are concerned, the danger of extra-marital impregnation occupies the first place.
The Sexual Life of the Child | Albert MollOr is it poisoned with virus, from a very small distance, by the progressive impregnation of the neighbouring tissues?
More Hunting Wasps | J. Henri FabreBrown goes on to describe the change that follows impregnation, and the gradual appearance of the embryo.
British Dictionary definitions for impregnate
to saturate, soak, or infuse: to impregnate a cloth with detergent
to imbue or permeate; pervade
to cause to conceive; make pregnant
to fertilize (an ovum)
to make (land, soil, etc) fruitful
pregnant or fertilized
Origin of impregnate
1Derived forms of impregnate
- impregnation, noun
- impregnator, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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