impracticable

Etymology

From im- +‎ practicable.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɹaktɪkəb(ə)l/

Adjective

impracticable (comparative more impracticable, superlative most impracticable)

1. not practicable; impossible or difficult in practice

   Antonym: practicable

2. (of a passage or road) impassable
3. (obsolete, of a person or thing) unmanageable
   • 1713, Nicholas Rowe, The Fair Penitent‎, published 1797:

     And yet this tough impracticable heart / Is govern'd by a dainty-finger'd girl ; […]

   • c. 1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks‎, published 1960, page 18:

     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.

Noun

impracticable (plural impracticables)

1. (obsolete) an unmanageable person
   • 1829, Henry Barkley Henderson, The Bengalee, or Sketches of Society and Manners in the East‎, page 13:

     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.

   • 1867, James Parton, Famous Americans of Recent Times‎, page 83:

     The strict constructionists had dwindled to a few impracticables, headed by John Randolph.

   • 1870, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Society and Solitude‎, page 187:

     Then there are the gladiators, to whom it is always a battle ; 'tis no matter on which side, they fight for victory; then the heady men, the egotists, the monotones, the steriles, and the impracticables.

Adjective

impracticable (plural impracticables)

1. impracticable