impregnated, ppl. a.
(ˈɪm-, ɪmˈprɛgneɪtɪd)
[f. impregnate v. + -ed1. It took the place of the earlier ppl. adj. impregnate.]
1. Made pregnant; caused to conceive; fertilized.
| 1789 Baillie in Phil. Trans. LXXIX. 75 In the impregnated uterus. 1881 Mivart Cat 317 The impregnated ovum becomes an embryo. 1885 G. L. Goodale Phys. Bot. (1892) 436 The fertilized or impregnated oösphere is termed an oöspore. |
2. Imbued or saturated with something; having some active ingredient diffused through it. spec. impregnated wood, (a) wood saturated with a preservative; (b) = impreg.
| 1605 [see impregnate v. 3]. 1729 Evelyn's Kal. Hort. 206 A vessel of impregnated Water. 1790 Keir in Phil. Trans. LXXX. 372 Adding water to the impregnated acid. 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 280 An impregnated stratum of quartzite. 1942 Amer. Jrnl. Bot. XXIX. 552/1 A brown mold has been observed..on small pieces of impregnated wood. [1942 Fortune Oct. 180/2 It [sc. ‘compreg’] consists of layers of resin-impregnated wood that have been compressed together.] 1944 Amer. Speech XIX. 92 Plywood manufacturers..developed a technique by which the glue..is forced through the entire texture of all the plies in a laminated sheet, and ‘impregnated wood’ is the specific name of the resultant product. 1951 Mactaggart & Chambers Plastics & Building x. 114 This phenomenon [sc. impregnation of wood with synthetic resin] has resulted in the development of two types of impregnated wood called generally Impreg and Compreg. 1963 A. D. Wood Plywoods of World iv. 141 Improved and impregnated wood is more difficult to work than solid timber. |