Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Not subject to suffering, pain, or harm.
  • adjective Unfeeling; impassive.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Incapable of suffering; insensible to pain or harm.
  • Not to be moved to passion or sympathy; having or exhibiting no emotion.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Incapable of suffering; inaccessible to harm or pain; not to be touched or moved to passion or sympathy; unfeeling, or not showing feeling; without sensation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Unable to suffer, or feel pain.
  • adjective Unable to feel emotion; impassive.
  • adjective Incapable of suffering injury or detriment.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin impassibilis : in-, not; see in– + passibilis, passible; see passible.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French impassible.

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Examples

  • Many streets on the city's south side were described as impassible, littered with downed trees and utility poles.

    The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed 2011

  • Like space, like eternity, he is, in his own nature, as spirit, essentially impassible — impassible, that is, as related to force.

    Sermons for the New Life. 1802-1876 1876

  • Now it was, it is clear, that the sword of sorrow pierced her through and through, for the Queen of martyrs was fearfully and mortally wounded in that part which is impassible, that is, in her soul; and she bore the death of the Cross in that which could not die, suffering all the more her grievous inward death, as outward death departed farther from her.

    Meditations on the Life and Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. c. 1300-1361 1875

  • In the passage quoted, from the Library of America edition, there is one word that bears looking at: "impassible," referring to Robert E. Lee's face.

    languagehat.com: IMPASSIBLE. 2004

  • Christ [Greek: apathês] ( "impassible") is essentially identical with the view set forth by Tertullian adv.

    History of Dogma, Volume 2 (of 7) Adolph Harnack 1890

  • Manaus, on the junction of the Rio Negro and the Solimoes, where both become the Amazon, is another example of the Brazilian machismo of dropping a city in the least likely place; in this case, a city of three million with only three roads -- frequently impassible -- connecting it to the rest of the country.

    MIND MELD: Real-Life Places That Inspire Exceptional World Building 2009

  • The city's airport was shut down and many roads are impassible.

    New Zealand Earthquake Kills 65 2011

  • The city's airport was shut down and many roads are impassible.

    New Zealand Earthquake Kills 65 2011

  • The firing direction points only to impassible tangles of mountain laurel and hummocky swamp behind my earth filled 55 gallon drums for backstop.

    Guns = "Unhealthy" Lifestyle? 2009

  • The firing direction points only to impassible tangles of mountain laurel and hummocky swamp behind my earth filled 55 gallon drums for backstop.

    Guns = "Unhealthy" Lifestyle? 2009

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