Definition of "penetrate"

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

things which here were […] too subtile for us to penetrate

1691, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […]

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

I am advised to give her music o' mornings; they say it will penetrate

1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act II, scene iii]

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