IMPALE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Impale

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/ɪmpˈeɪl/ Listen

verb

Empale v. t. (past & past part. empaled; pres. part. empaling) (Written also impale)

To fence or fortify with stakes; to surround with a line of stakes for defense; to impale. "All that dwell near enemies empale villages, to save themselves from surprise."

To inclose; to surround. See Impale.

To put to death by thrusting a sharpened stake through the body.

(Her.) Same as Impale.

Impale v. t. (past & past part. impaled; pres. part. impaling)

To pierce with a pale; to put to death by fixing on a sharp stake. See Empale. "Then with what life remains, impaled, and left To writhe at leisure round the bloody stake."

To inclose, as with pales or stakes; to surround. "Impale him with your weapons round about." "Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire."

(Her.) To join, as two coats of arms on one shield, palewise; hence, to join in honorable mention. "Ordered the admission of St. Patrick to the same to be matched and impaled with the blessed Virgin in the honor thereof."

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Etymology of 'Impale'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Impale" Quotes from Famous Books

... lunge were a fraction of a second quicker than any man is supposed to thrust and lunge. I won the fraction of a second. By that fraction of a second too late Fortini attempted to deflect my blade and impale me on his. But it was his blade that was deflected. It flashed past my breast, and I was in—inside his weapon, which extended full length in the empty air behind me—and my blade was inside of him, and through him, heart-high, from right side ...

— The Jacket (The Star-Rover) • Jack London

... ask you, when he comes down to breakfast dry of mouth, and touchy of temper— That gives him pause, and silences that scintillating barb of sarcasm on the tip of his tongue, With which he meant to impale you? It is the sweet aroma of the coffee-pot—the thrilling thought of that ...

— All About Coffee • William H. Ukers

... cut off Shridat's right hand, infuriated by his refusing to confess and to beg for mercy, exclaimed, "How must I punish such a wretch as thou art?" The unfortunate man answered, "Whatever your majesty may consider just, that be pleased to do." Thereupon the king cried, "Away with him, and impale him"; and the people, hearing the command, ...

— Vikram and the Vampire • Sir Richard F. Burton

... it was! A mere framework for thorns, and a finer array of them it would be hard to find, from the tiny affair an inch in length, suitable to hold a small grasshopper, to foot-long spikes, big enough to impale a crow. Not only was every branch and every twig bristling with them, but so charged was the whole tree with the "feeling" of thorns, that it actually sent out great clumps of them from the bare trunk, where there was not a ...

— Upon The Tree-Tops • Olive Thorne Miller

... the place. The spring is gushing forth, The bushes cover it. If I stand here, I can impale the man who stoops to ...

— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IX - Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig • Various

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