impinge

/ɪmˈpɪnd͡ʒ/

impinge verb: to make a physical impact on.

Verb

impinge (third-person singular simple present impinges, present participle impinging, simple past and past participle impinged)

(intransitive, rare, transitive) To make a physical impact on.
- Loud noise can impinge on the eardrum, causing temporary hearing damage.
- The ordinary rocks upon which such men do impinge and precipitate themselves, are cards, dice, hawks, and hounds […]1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for...
Synonyms:

collide, crash, strike
(figuratively, intransitive, rare, transitive) To interfere with.
- For example, if the trophic fibre is impinged there would be too much or too little gastric juice; if the motor fibre is impinged the muscular contractions of the stomach would be lessened; if the sensory fibre is impinged there[…]1921, Arthur Leopold Forster, The White Mark: An Editorial History of Chiropractic, page 127
- It is astonishing that the meaning of a single declarative sentence enshrined in the Bill of Rights has evaded judicial construction establishing, at a minimum, some bedrock level of state sovereignty upon which the federal government can not impinge.2006 Summer, Keith R. Fisher, “Toward a Basal Tenth Amendment: A Riposte to National Bank Preemption of State Consumer Protection Laws”, in Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, volume 29, number...
Synonyms:

encroach, infringe, trespass
(figuratively, intransitive) To have an effect upon, especially a negative one.
- Near-synonym: infringe
- “I have tried, as I hinted, to enlist the co-operation of other capitalists, but experience has taught me that any appeal is futile that does not impinge directly upon cupidity.[…]”1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad
Synonyms:

affect, limit, touch, influence, impact, infringe

impinge meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

impinge in Tamil

குற்றஞ்சாட்டு

impinge in Urdu

لگنا, قبضہ کرنا, ٹکرانا, اوپر گرنا

impinge in Bengali

ধাক্কা লাগা, প্রভাব ফেলা, অনধিকার প্রবেশ করা

impinge in Malayalam

affect, have an effect, touch: തട്ടുക, ബാധിക്കുക, അലട്ടുക, ഏശുക, പറ്റുക, ഗാഢമായി സ്പർശിക്കുക
intrude, encroach, infringe: അതിക്രമിച്ചു കടക്കുക, കടന്നുകയറുക, അതിരുകടക്കുക, ലംഘിക്കുക, കെെകടക്കുക, അതിക്രമിക്കുക
strike, hit, collide with: മുട്ടുക, കൂട്ടിയടിക്കുക, സംഘട്ടനം ചെയ്യുക, പതിയുക, ഇടിക്കുക, കൂട്ടിമുട്ടുക

More languagesFewer languages

impinge in Kannada: ಹೊಡೆ, ತಾಗು, ಒತ್ತುವರಿ ಮಾಡು, ಪ್ರಭಾವ ಬೀರು

Examples of impinge in a sentence

[...] are bent up at right angles to the plate to form flanges which impinge the opposite sides of the nut, thus preventing the latter from turning.1905, United States. Patent Office, Specifications and Drawings of Patents Issued from the United States Patent Office for ..., page 1419:
In the near field not only the shock wave but also the expanding products of the explosion will impinge the plate which introduces some[…]2016 December 1, Carlos Guedes Soares, T.A. Santos, Maritime Technology and Engineering III: Proceedings of the 3rd International...
Nothing in the next-door world of Dachau impinged on the great winter cycle of Beethoven chamber music played in Munich.1971, George Steiner, “In a Post-Culture”, in In Bluebeard's Castle:
The 'world economy', such as it was, hardly impinged [on Europe].1982, Patrick O' Brien, “European Economic Development: The Contribution of the Periphery”, in The Economic History Review, volume 107...

All 13 example sentences with impinge

Synonyms of impinge

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

impact

All synonyms of impinge

Forms of impinge

third-person singular present	impinges
present participle	impinging
past participle	impinged
past	impinged

Past tense of impinge: impinged

Origin of impinge

Borrowed from Latin impingō (“dash against, impinge”). Compare impact, derived from the perfect passive participle of impingō.

Words formed from impinge

Words that rhyme with impinge

21 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about impinge

What does impinge mean?: Impinge means to make a physical impact on.
What is impinge in Tamil?: Impinge in Tamil is குற்றஞ்சாட்டு. See Impinge meaning in Tamil.
How do you use impinge in a sentence?: [...] are bent up at right angles to the plate to form flanges which impinge the opposite sides of the nut, thus preventing the latter from turning.
What part of speech is impinge?: Impinge is a verb.
How do you pronounce impinge?: Impinge is pronounced /ɪmˈpɪnd͡ʒ/.
What is the past tense of impinge?: The past tense of impinge is impinged.

Words near impinge in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: impinge (page history and authors); impinge (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impinge (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Impinge (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impinge (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); impinge (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-impinge.wav.

Cite this entry: “impinge.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/impinge. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.