impale
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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}.
[1913 Webster]
Then with what life remains, impaled, and left
To writhe at leisure round the bloody stake.
--Addison.
[1913 Webster]
2. To inclose, as with pales or stakes; to surround.
[1913 Webster]
Impale him with your weapons round about. --Shak.
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Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire. --Milton.
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3. (Her.) To join, as two coats of arms on one shield,
palewise; hence, to join in honorable mention.
[1913 Webster]
Ordered the admission of St. Patrick to the same to
be matched and impaled with the blessed Virgin in
the honor thereof. --Fuller.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
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.
[1913 Webster]
All that dwell near enemies empale villages, to save
themselves from surprise. --Sir W.
Raleigh.
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2. To inclose; to surround. See {Impale}.
[1913 Webster]
3. To put to death by thrusting a sharpened stake through the
body.
[1913 Webster]
4. (Her.) Same as {Impale}.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Devil's Dictionary (1881-1906)
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.
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
73 Moby Thesaurus words for "impale":
agonize, auger, bayonet, bite, bloody, bore, broach, claw,
convulse, countersink, crucify, dagger, dirk, dismember,
draw and quarter, drill, empierce, excruciate, fix, gore, gouge,
gouge out, grill, harrow, hole, honeycomb, keelhaul,
kill by inches, knife, lacerate, lance, lancinate, macerate,
martyr, martyrize, needle, penetrate, perforate, picket, pierce,
pink, plunge in, poniard, prick, punch, puncture, punish, rack,
ream, ream out, riddle, rip, run through, saber, savage, scarify,
skewer, spear, spike, spit, stab, stick, stiletto, sword, tap,
tar and feather, torment, torture, transfix, transpierce, trepan,
trephine, wring
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