1. To strike, to hit, or to collide: The crash of thunder impinged on Gertrude's ears.

Manfred tried to sleep, but the loud sounds of the traffic outside the hotel impinged on his ears and kept him awake for quite awhile.

2. To trespass, to interfere with, to intrude, to impose, or to encroach: The weeds in Jim's yard have impinged significantly and have grown completely over the sidewalk because he and his family had been away traveling for over two months!

Claudia sometimes felt that her mother was impinging on her right to raise her children in her own way.

3. Etymology: "to fasten or to fix forcibly"; from Latin impingere "to drive into, to strike against"; from an assimilated form of in-, "into, in, on, upon" + pangere, "to fix, to fasten". © ALL rights are reserved.

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