impeach
UK /ɪmˈpiːt͡ʃ/ · US /ɪmˈpit͡ʃ/ verb
Forms impeaches impeaching impeached empeach
- verb To hinder, impede, or prevent.
- verb To bring a legal proceeding against a public official. “President Clinton was impeached by the House in November 1998, but since the Senate acquitted him, he was not removed from office.”
- verb To charge with impropriety; to discredit; to call into question.
- verb (law) To demonstrate in court that a testimony under oath contradicts another testimony from the same person, usually one taken during deposition.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English empechen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman empecher, from Old French empeechier (“to hinder”), from Latin impedicāre (“to fetter”). Cognate with French empêcher (“to prevent”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To hinder; to impede; to prevent. [Obs.]
- verb To charge with a crime or misdemeanor; to accuse; especially to charge (a public officer), before a competent tribunal, with misbehavior in office; to cite before a tribunal for judgement of official misconduct; to arraign; as, to impeach a judge. See Impeachment.
- noun Hindrance; impeachment. [Obs.]
Etymology [OE. empeechier to prevent, hinder, bar, F. empêcher, L. impedicare to entangle; pref. im- in + pedica fetter, fr. pes, pedis, foot. See Foot, and Appeach, Dispatch, Impede.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “impeach”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details