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
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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impalesimple
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impalessimple
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have impaledperfect
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has impaledperfect
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am impalingprogressive
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are impalingprogressive
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is impalingprogressive
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have been impalingperfect progressive
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has been impalingperfect progressive
Past
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impaledsimple
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had impaledperfect
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was impalingprogressive
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were impalingprogressive
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had been impalingperfect progressive
Future
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.
See Examples For:
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
The film’s writers, directors and stars lovingly impale bloodsucker mythology with the sharpened wooden stick of comedy.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 18, 2015
Annabeth stepped around random bristles sharp enough to impale her foot, and clusters of...well, not rocks exactly.
From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan
“Prey” dangles and impales oak-tree chunks on a black steel frame, suggesting technology’s role in subjugating nature.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 9, 2021
The Doctors Dr. Ordon’s coronavirus diagnosis and road to recovery; a toothbrush impales child; children’s teeth reveal emotional trauma; instant eye de-puffer; hospice care; liver cancer risk.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 7, 2020
But suck it up, because next is a pure songwriting masterclass in “Shrike,” which is titled after a bird that impales insects on thorns.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 4, 2019
“Emperor of Mongolia, Emperor of China,” he roars, “I will be Emperor of the world!”–and impales a map with his sword.
From Time ● Dec. 11, 2014
With those bright eyes reading her unwomanly and foolish heart, was he amusing himself, as an entomologist impales a feeble worm, and from its writhing deduces the exact character of its nervous and muscular anatomy?
From Infelice by Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
That’s when the Yankees impaled themselves on their pinstripes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2024
Local fire department personnel and state police responded early Saturday to find the animal not impaled on the structure but unable to get its belly and rear legs over the top.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 1, 2022
The original “money-grubbers” earned their living selling squirming insect larvae impaled on sticks for snacks.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 17, 2022
A "miraculously lucky" farmer who survived being impaled through the abdomen by a tine on his forklift truck has thanked medics who saved his life.
From BBC ● Nov. 18, 2021
I was walking along a street one afternoon when I saw a piece of magazine impaled against a fence of cacti.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
An American, 47, reportedly tried to climb over a fence in Piazza del Colosseo, presumably to get a closer look at the Colosseum, before falling and impaling himself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2025
The new 0.6-mile route replaces one general traffic lane of West Marginal Way Southwest with waist-high concrete dividers for the two-way bike lane, along with yellow-and-black steel attenuators that prevent drivers from impaling their cars.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2023
The insect-eating birds have beaks like swords, appropriate for stabbing and impaling insects.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 9, 2022
The Mind Flayer is moments away from impaling El and the gate has to be shut down.
From Washington Post ● May 27, 2022
When the railroad police came through the train, impaling the haystacks to flush out stowaways, the trainers packed the boys into tack trunks.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
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.
