impi
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of impi
1875–80; < Zulu: impi, armed force, battle
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:
The impi covered the distance at a dead run.
From Time Magazine Archive
Within a year, his modest impi of 350 warriors had swollen to 2,000.
From Time Magazine Archive
Sibijaan ran in to say that the impi had arrived, and while he spoke we heard the cries and the thud of feet that marked the royal salute.
From Adventures in Swaziland The Story of a South African Boer by O'Neil, Owen Rowe
Crespinell followed, and then we turned and faced the royal impi.
From Adventures in Swaziland The Story of a South African Boer by O'Neil, Owen Rowe
It was the first time that Sugden and the others had seen a whole impi in all its glory and they were much impressed.
From Adventures in Swaziland The Story of a South African Boer by O'Neil, Owen Rowe
Stamping their feet, beating on their shields with their assegais and roaring the war cry usutu!, the warrior impis, arrayed like the right and left horns of the buffalo, would begin encircling the foe.
From Time Magazine Archive
De Klerk, moreover, has expressed ambivalence when Zulu war parties known as impis have paraded provocatively through township streets carrying spears and other so-called cultural weapons.
From Time Magazine Archive
The British had divided Zululand into 13 ineffectual kingdoms whose impis endlessly clashed for a power no longer there.
From Time Magazine Archive
For some unknown reason, I was fearful of the place and wanted to turn back, but the sight, nearby, of shirtless, muscular impis engaged in mock fights using spears and knobkerries made me stay.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
Some of the men in the impis winked and grinned at us as we passed.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
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.
