"do the impossible" meaning in English

See do the impossible in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: does the impossible [present, singular, third-person], doing the impossible [participle, present], did the impossible [past], done the impossible [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|do<does,,did,done> the impossible}} do the impossible (third-person singular simple present does the impossible, present participle doing the impossible, simple past did the impossible, past participle done the impossible)
  1. To accomplish something in spite of overwhelming odds against it. Related terms: ask the impossible Translations (Translations): 做到別人認為不可能的事 (Chinese Mandarin), 做到别人认为不可能的事 (zuòdào biérén rènwéi bù kěnéng de shì) (Chinese Mandarin), tehdä mahdottomia (Finnish), faire l’impossible (French), das Unmögliche tun (German), fare l'impossibile (Italian), dokonywać niemożliwego [imperfective] (Polish)
    Sense id: en-do_the_impossible-en-verb-sQL4owih Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for do the impossible meaning in English (2.3kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "does the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "doing the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "did the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "done the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "do<does,,did,done> the impossible"
      },
      "expansion": "do the impossible (third-person singular simple present does the impossible, present participle doing the impossible, simple past did the impossible, past participle done the impossible)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1998, Jennifer DeVere Brody, Impossible Purities, page 118",
          "text": "Reade's androgyne does the impossible by being not only the product of desire, but also the producer of desire.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Inez Haynes Gillmore, The Story of the Woman's Party",
          "text": "What I ask is, will you use your influence within your Party? I do not ask the impossible, though I might from you, for you have done the impossible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To accomplish something in spite of overwhelming odds against it."
      ],
      "id": "en-do_the_impossible-en-verb-sQL4owih",
      "links": [
        [
          "overwhelming",
          "overwhelming"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "ask the impossible"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "做到別人認為不可能的事"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "zuòdào biérén rènwéi bù kěnéng de shì",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "做到别人认为不可能的事"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "tehdä mahdottomia"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "faire l’impossible"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "das Unmögliche tun"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "word": "fare l'impossibile"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "Translations",
          "tags": [
            "imperfective"
          ],
          "word": "dokonywać niemożliwego"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "do the impossible"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "does the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "doing the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "did the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "done the impossible",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "do<does,,did,done> the impossible"
      },
      "expansion": "do the impossible (third-person singular simple present does the impossible, present participle doing the impossible, simple past did the impossible, past participle done the impossible)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "ask the impossible"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English verbs",
        "Translation table header lacks gloss"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1998, Jennifer DeVere Brody, Impossible Purities, page 118",
          "text": "Reade's androgyne does the impossible by being not only the product of desire, but also the producer of desire.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022, Inez Haynes Gillmore, The Story of the Woman's Party",
          "text": "What I ask is, will you use your influence within your Party? I do not ask the impossible, though I might from you, for you have done the impossible.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To accomplish something in spite of overwhelming odds against it."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "overwhelming",
          "overwhelming"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "做到別人認為不可能的事"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "zuòdào biérén rènwéi bù kěnéng de shì",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "做到别人认为不可能的事"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "tehdä mahdottomia"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "faire l’impossible"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "das Unmögliche tun"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "word": "fare l'impossibile"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "Translations",
      "tags": [
        "imperfective"
      ],
      "word": "dokonywać niemożliwego"
    }
  ],
  "word": "do the impossible"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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