impracticable

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   Not practicable

   Not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice.

   • It has not been used for many years, and although it was impracticable to photograph the engine in the small confines of the shed it was possible to obtain a picture of the plate which it still carries showing the former ownership.
2. 2

   impassable (of a passage or road)

3. 3

   unmanageable

   • And yet this tough impracticable heart / Is govern'd by a dainty-finger'd girl ; […]
   • H. is a person of extraordinary health & vigor, of unerring perception, & equal expression; and yet he is impracticable, and does not flow through his pen or (in any of our legitimate aqueducts) through his tongue.
4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      an unmanageable person

      • They were not allowed, of course, to join us in the sitting room, partly that their practice might not be disturbed, but principally, that I was looked upon as an utter impracticable.
      • The strict constructionists had dwindled to a few impracticables, headed by John Randolph.
      • Then there are the gladiators, to whom it is always a battle; 't is no matter on which side, they fight for victory; then the heady men, the egotists, the monotones, the steriles, and the impracticables.

The neighborhood