impale
Americanverb (used with object)
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to fasten, stick, or fix upon a sharpened stake or the like.
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to pierce with a sharpened stake thrust up through the body, as for torture or punishment.
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to fix upon, or pierce through with, anything pointed.
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to make helpless as if pierced through.
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Archaic. to enclose with or as if with pales or stakes; fence in; hem in.
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Heraldry.
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to marshal (two coats of arms, as the family arms of a husband and wife) on an escutcheon party per pale.
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(of a coat of arms) to be combined with (another coat of arms) in this way.
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verb
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to pierce with a sharp instrument
they impaled his severed head on a spear
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archaic to enclose with pales or fencing; fence in
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heraldry to charge (a shield) with two coats of arms placed side by side
Other Word Forms
- impalement noun
- impaler noun
Etymology
Origin of impale
1545–55; < Medieval Latin impālāre, equivalent to Latin im- im- 1 + pāl ( us ) pale 2 + -ā- thematic vowel + -re infinitive ending
Explanation
The verb impale means to pierce an object with a sharp stick. When you're preparing shish kebabs, you impale chunks of marinated vegetables and meat on pointy metal skewers and then cook them on a grill. Impale comes from the Medieval Latin word impalare, which means "to push onto a stake." Impale can also mean to kill by piercing with a stake or spear. Legend has it that the only way to kill a vampire is to do exactly that: impale him with a wooden stake through the heart — and then stuff his mouth with garlic and chop off his head, too, just to be sure.
Vocabulary lists containing impale
"Balboa," Vocabulary from the short story
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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All the Pretty Horses
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Michigan and Wisconsin hold sturgeon spearing seasons each winter as well where anglers drill holes through lake ice and impale sturgeon as they swim past.
From Seattle Times • Apr. 22, 2024
They evolved near the base of the ant family tree and sported sharp, sickle-shaped tusks that may have slammed upward to impale other insects.
From Science Magazine • May 23, 2019
In any case, it’s an environment that you move around in, not some map you impale with little pins.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 30, 2018
“As soon as you impale that apple on the nail, decay begins,” Viancour says.
From Washington Post • Dec. 19, 2017
Horrified, they watched Papa squeamishly impale a muddy worm on the hook.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
