Verb

(penetrat)

To enter into; to make way into the interior of; to pierce.

Light penetrates darkness.

* {{quote-book, year=1879, title=The Telephone, the Microphone and the Phonograph

, author=Th Du Moncel, page=166, publisher=Harper , passage=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.}}

(figuratively) To achieve understanding of, despite some obstacle; to comprehend; to understand.

I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.

* Ray

things which here were too subtile for us to penetrate

To affect profoundly through the senses or feelings; to move deeply.

to penetrate one's heart with pity

* M. Arnold

The translator of Homer should penetrate himself with a sense of the plainness and directness of Homer's style.

(Shakespeare)

To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.

To insert the penis into an opening, such as a vagina or anus. (rfex)

Verb

(illustrat)

(obsolete) To shed light upon; to illuminate.

* Were the Moon smooth, as a looking glass, a very small part would be seen by any particular eye to be illustrated by the Sun.

* Chapman

Here, when the moon illustrates all the sky.

To clarify something by giving, or serving as, an example or a comparison.

* Milton

To prove him, and illustrate his high worth.

* {{quote-news

, year=2012 , date=September 7 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Moldova 0-5 England , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=England were graphically illustrating the huge gulf in class between the sides and it was no surprise when Lampard added the second just before the half hour. Steven Gerrard found his Liverpool team-mate Glen Johnson and Lampard arrived in the area with perfect timing to glide a header beyond Namasco.}}

* We illustrate our definitions by including quotations or simple examples.

To provide a book or other publication with pictures, diagrams or other explanatory or decorative features.

* The economics textbook was illustrated with many graphs.

(obsolete) To give renown or honour to; to make illustrious; to glorify.

* Milton

Matter to me of glory, whom their hate / Illustrates .