All 13 Uses

impact
in
The Hunt for Red October
(Auto-generated)

There were three tons of engine and electronics parts stowed in crates aft—there, no doubt, so that the impact of a plane crash on the valuable equipment would be softened by the four bodies in the passenger section.†
Chpt 7.
Massive landing gear struts and shock absorbers were needed to lessen the bone-crushing impact.†
Chpt 7.
The canopy was coated with rain, and he heard the impact of thousands of raindrops on the airframe—or was it hail?†
Chpt 7.
The impact had smashed ten square meters of bow plating, annihilated the sonar dome, knocked a torpedo tube askew, and nearly flooded the torpedo room.†
Chpt 8.
She impacted savagely on the hard sand bottom at the edge of the continental shelf.†
Chpt 8.
The impact tossed the fighter completely out of control.†
Chpt 10.
The agent was lifted off the deck and twisted halfway around from the impact.†
Chpt 14.
The torpedo had impacted in the center of a steel plate on the outer hull, several feet from any weld joints.†
Chpt 17. *
No bottom impact, no collapse noises...New contact, bearing one-seven-zero...Different sound, Comrade Captain, one propeller...Sounds like an American.†
Chpt 17.
The impact broke it into three pieces, which were batted aside by the accelerating missile submarine.†
Chpt 17. *
Brace for impact!†
Chpt 17.
He yanked at it only seconds before impact.†
Chpt 17.
The torpedo room had not flooded—a sensor damaged by the impact had given a false reading.†
Chpt 17.

Definitions:

(1) (impact as in: her impact on foreign policy)
influence or effect
(2) (impact as in: at the moment of impact)
collision (when two objects collide or crash)
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Much less commonly, impact can refer to pressure as when describing a tooth impacted against another tooth or an impact ulcer that appears on the skin from something that presses on it.