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more about impale
impale |
4 definitions found From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Empale \Em*pale"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Empaled}; p. pr & vb n. {Empaling}.] [OF. empaler to palisade, pierce, F. empaler to punish by empalement; pref. em- (L. in) + OF & F. pal a pale, stake. See {Pale} a stake, and cf {Impale}.] [Written also {impale}.] 1. 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. --Sir W. Raleigh. 2. To inclose; to surround. See {Impale}. 3. To put to death by thrusting a sharpened stake through the body. 4. (Her.) Same as {Impale}. From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: Impale \Im*pale"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Impaled}; p. pr & vb n. {Impaling}.] [See 2d {Empale}.] 1. 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. --Addison. 2. To inclose, as with pales or stakes; to surround. Impale him with your weapons round about --Shak. Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire. --Milton. 3. (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. --Fuller. From WordNet r 1.6 [wn]: impale v 1: pierce with a sharp stake or point; "impale a shrimp on a skewer" [syn: {transfix}, {empale}, {spike}] 2: kill by piercing with a spear or sharp pole; "the enemies were impaled and left to die" [syn: {stake}] From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]: IMPALE, v.t. In popular usage to pierce with any weapon which remains fixed in the wound. This however, is inaccurate; to imaple is properly, to put to death by thrusting an upright sharp stake into the body, the victim being left in a sitting position. This was a common mode of punishment among many of the nations of antiquity, and is still in high favor in China and other parts of Asia. Down to the beginning of the fifteenth century it was widely employed in churching" heretics and schismatics. Wolecraft calls it the "stoole of repentynge," and among the common people it was jocularly known as "riding the one legged horse." Ludwig Salzmann informs us that in Thibet impalement is considered the most appropriate punishment for crimes against religion; and although in China it is sometimes awarded for secular offences, it is most frequently adjudged in cases of sacrilege. To the person in actual experience of impalement it must be a matter of minor importance by what kind of civil or religious dissent he was made acquainted with its discomforts; but doubtless he would feel a certain satisfaction if able to contemplate himself in the character of a weather-cock on the spire of the True Church.
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