penetrate

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.

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

I could not penetrate Burke's opaque rhetoric.

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

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

To infiltrate an enemy to gather intelligence.

To insert the penis into an orifice, 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.