penetrate

Etymology

From Latin penētrātus, past participle of penētrō (“to put, set, or place within, enter, pierce, penetrate”), from penes (“within, with”) by analogy to intrō (“to go in, enter”).

verb

1. To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.
   Light penetrates darkness.
   He takes the prepared charcoal used by artists, brings it to a white heat, and suddenly plunges it in a bath of mercury, of which the globules instantly penetrate the pores of charcoal, and may be said to metallize it. 1879, Th Du Moncel, The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph, Harper, page 166
   and they, ... they .... fly though space, and they penetrate the atmosphere[…]after an amazing nine-month journey 2013, Space Babies
2. (figurative) To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.
   I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.
3. To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.
   to penetrate one's heart with pity
   The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style. 1867, Matthew Arnold, On the Study of Celtic Literature
4. To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.
5. To insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina, mouth or anus.
   a male elephant comes up and penetrates the female
   His weapons have been destroyed; his body has been or can be penetrated. In other words, he is rapable. 2005, Patricia Vettel-Becker, Shooting from the hip: photography, masculinity, and postwar America
6. (chess) To move a piece past the defending pieces of one's opponent.