Definition of "semipermeable" [semipermeable]

• Partially permeable. (adjective)
• Allowing passage of certain, especially small, molecules or ions but acting as a barrier to others. Used of biological and synthetic membranes. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Needless to say, this has the most profound implications for the semipermeable soul."
• "The matter of what exactly cures us is not unrelated to other themes that have run through this book, in particular that of the semipermeable soul and “who shall I say is calling?”"
• "Is not our modern way of seeing, or not seeing, very much tied to the sealed-off self that we now construe, a somewhat different organ from the semipermeable soul it has replaced?"