impale, v.
(ɪmˈpeɪl)
Forms: α. (6 enpale), 6–9 empale, 7 empail(e, (empall, empal). β. 6–7 impayl, (impall), 7 impail, (impal), 6– impale.
[a. F. empale-r (Froissart), ad. med.L. impālāre ‘in palum impingere’ (Du Cange), f. im- (im-1) + pāl-us stake (cf. late L. pālāre to support with stakes, prop up).]
1. a. trans. To enclose with pales, stakes, or posts; to surround with a palisade; to fence in. Now rare.
| α 1601 Holland Pliny II. 516 Minding to mound and empale his cottage round about with a fence of an hedge. 1610 ― Camden's Brit. ii. 73 (Ireland) Their country goeth under the tearme of The English Pale, because the first Englishmen..did empale for themselves certaine limits in the East part of the Iland. 1634–5 Brereton Trav. (Chetham Soc.) 44, I saw a pool empaled wherein were pell-starts. |
| β 1530 Palsgr. 590/1 I impale, I close a grounde or a parke with pales, je emparque. 1614 Raleigh Hist. World iii. (1634) 61 The same wall which..had preserved their lives, by holding out the enemy did now impale them. 1766 Porny Heraldry iv. (1777) 64 The Pale denotes Strength and Firmness, and has been bestowed to impaling Cities. 1845 Hood Fairy Tale 21 So he might impale a strip of soil. |
b. transf. and
fig. To surround or enclose as with a palisade; to shut in, hedge about, confine, hem in. Now
rare.
| α 1581 J. Bell Haddon's Answ. Osor. 33 Men..that are empaled within the boundes of the Church. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. ii. 24 Where Portland..doth overpeere the maine, Her rugged front empal'd (on every part) with rocks. 1675 Grew Anat. Trunks i. ii. §25 Every single Milk-Vessel being empaled or hemmed in with an Arch of Roriferous [vessels]. |
| β 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 899/1 Wee must..keepe ourselues stil within the parke wherein God impaled us with his word. 1638 Sir T. Herbert Trav. (ed. 2) 100 Welcomed by the Quene, who..impales him in her armes, and cryes for joy. 1725 Pope Odyss. xix. 520 Bristles high impale his horrid chine. 1860 Maury Phys. Geog. Sea (Low) x. §465 It would have been impaled in a nook of the very drop of water in which it was brought forth. |
† c. Mil. To enclose or surround (troops) for defence, as with other troops, or with wagons, etc. (Improperly, To set in array, draw up.)
Obs.| α 1553 Brende Q. Curtius iii. 28 Nabarzanes empaled the battell on the right hand with a great power of horse⁓men, and xxx. thousand slingers and archers. 1569 T. Stocker tr. Diod. Sic. iii. ii. 105 He enpaled his Campe with hys carriages. 1578 Hunnis Hiveful Honey, Gen. xxiv. 16 Against these five, the other fower Their Battailes did empale. 1641 Baker Chron. (1679) 232/2 The Battel..consisted of a thousand Bill-men empaled with two thousand Pikes. |
| β 1579 Digges Stratiot. 102 To set his souldyours that the best armed impale the rest. 1635 W. Barriffe Mil. Discip. cx. (1643) 343 Impaling the reere, with the Wagons, Carts, and Baggage. 1670 Milton Hist. Eng. ii. (1851) 60 The Legionaries stood..impal'd with light armed. |
2. To surround for adornment; to encircle, as with a crown or garland; to border, edge (with decoration).
Obs. or
arch.| α 1553 Brende Q. Curtius Dd vj, Garmentes of linnen clothe embrodered with golde, and empaled with purple. 1630 R. Brathwait Eng. Gentlem. (1641) 247 A crowne of glory shall empale you. 1686 Goad Celest. Bodies ii. vii. 252, I cannot..empale each Page of this Discourse with a Black mourning Lig. |
| β 1555 Eden Decades 163 Fethers and quilles impaled with golde. 1589 Greene Menaphon L iv b, He impalled the head of his yong nephew..with the crowne and diademe of Arcadie. 1644 Bulwer Chiron. 69 A Hand..impail'd about with rayes. 1860 Ld. Lytton Lucile ii. iv. §i. 126 All the laurels that ever with praise Impaled human brows. |
3. a. Her. To combine (two coats of arms, as those of a husband and wife) by placing them side by side on one shield, separated palewise,
i.e. by a vertical line down the middle. (Also said of one coat of arms, with the other as
obj.)
| α 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. vii. v. 212 Their..marriages are made knowne by the sculpture of an hand in hand, and the Coat-armes of the parties empaled. 1725 Lond. Gaz. No. 6382/3 The Escocheon of the Arms of the Order empaling those of the Sovereign. 1872 O. Shipley Gloss. Eccl. Terms s.v. Arms, A bishop empales his family coat-of-arms with the arms of his see. |
| β 1605 [see impaling vbl. n.]. 1610 J. Guillim Heraldry vi. ii. (1611) 256 Receiued as an augmentation of honour..impaled with her paternall coat. 1787 Porny Heraldry (ed. 4) Gloss. 1882 Cussans Her. xii. (ed. 3) 166 A man marrying an Heiress..During her father's lifetime..her husband only impales her Arms. |
† b. fig. To place side by side (for comparison, or as being equal in dignity).
Obs.| 1647 N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. i. lxxi. (1739) 193, I have thus impaled these three, that the Reader may the better discern how they relate each to other. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. i. v. §19 The Admission of St. Patrick..to be match'd and impaled with the Blessed Virgin in the Honour thereof. 1659 H. L'Estrange Alliance Div. Offices Pref. 4 You may view them in one scheame..as they stand impaled. |
4. a. To thrust a pointed stake through the body of, as a form of torture or capital punishment; to fix upon a stake thrust up through the body.
| α 1678 R. L'Estrange Seneca's Mor. (1702) 193 Wild Beasts to devour us; Stakes to Empale us. 1713 Addison Cato iii. v, Let them..be..empal'd and left To writhe at leisure round the bloody stake. |
| β 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 389 He impaled this Caragoses in the way on a sharpe stake fastened in the ground. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 100 note, To be impaled is to have a stake thrust thorough the fundament and to come out of the mouth. 1668 Lond. Gaz. No. 286/3 The Visier..caused the Greek to be impalled. 1828 G. W. Bridges Ann. Jamaica II. xv. 205 In a general massacre of the whites some were impaled by the savage hands of their own domestic slaves. 1859 Tennyson Vivien 567 The King impaled him for his piracy. |
b. transf. To transfix upon, or pierce through with, anything pointed;
fig. to torment or render helpless as if transfixed.
| a 1678 Marvell Poems, Soul & Body, This tyrannic soul, Which, stretched upright, impales me so. 1807 Sir R. Wilson Jrnl. 27 Aug. in Life (1862) II. 363 The falcon often impales himself on the long and sharp beak [of the heron]. 1878 Smiles Robt. Dick v. 45 Impaling it with a pin. |
c. fig. To transfix (a person) with one's gaze.
| 1877 My Mother-in-Law vi. 60 Mrs. Pinkerton devoted herself to impaling me with her eyes once in a while. 1903 Critic XLIII. 349/2 There was an impaling fierceness in his eyes. |