1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. impeach

Find the word definition

What is "impeach"

Crossword clues for impeach

impeach
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
impeach
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Congress voted to impeach the President, but he resigned before any action was taken.
▪ The governor was impeached for accepting bribes.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And the nation cheered when the Supreme Court and the Senate voted last week to impeach him.
▪ Four Patriotic Accord deputies began immediate moves to impeach eight Supreme Court judges on the grounds of incompetence.
▪ Guimaraes had emerged from near retirement to play a prominent public role in the process to impeach Collor.
▪ He tried to impeach Mr Premadasa, accusing the president of corruption.
▪ If Mr Wahid's response is unsatisfactory, parliament can call a special session to impeach him and demand his dismissal.
▪ There he eavesdrops on his colleagues as they attempt to impeach him.
▪ They're going to impeach him.
▪ They will decide this week whether to impeach him.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Impeach

Impeach \Im*peach"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Impeached; p. pr. & vb. n. Impeaching.] [OE. empeechier to prevent, hinder, bar, F. emp[^e]cher, L. impedicare to entangle; pref. im- in + pedica fetter, fr. pes, pedis, foot. See Foot, and Appeach, Dispatch, Impede.]

  1. To hinder; to impede; to prevent. [Obs.]

    These ungracious practices of his sons did impeach his journey to the Holy Land.
    --Sir J. Davies.

    A defluxion on my throat impeached my utterance.
    --Howell.

  2. 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 judgment of official misconduct; to arraign; as, to impeach a judge. See Impeachment.

  3. Hence, to charge with impropriety; to dishonor; to bring discredit on; to call in question; as, to impeach one's motives or conduct.

    And doth impeach the freedom of the state.
    --Shak.

  4. (Law) To challenge or discredit the credibility of, as of a witness, or the validity of, as of commercial paper.

    Note: When used in law with reference to a witness, the term signifies, to discredit, to show or prove unreliable or unworthy of belief; when used in reference to the credit of witness, the term denotes, to impair, to lessen, to disparage, to destroy. The credit of a witness may be impeached by showing that he has made statements out of court contradictory to what he swears at the trial, or by showing that his reputation for veracity is bad, etc.

    Syn: To accuse; arraign; censure; criminate; indict; impair; disparage; discredit. See Accuse.

Impeach

Impeach \Im*peach"\, n. Hindrance; impeachment. [Obs.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
impeach

late 14c., "to impede, hinder, prevent," from Anglo-French empecher, Old French empeechier "hinder" (12c., Modern French empêcher), from Late Latin impedicare "to fetter, catch, entangle," from assimilated form of in- "into, in" (see in- (2)) + Latin pedica "shackle," from pes (genitive pedis) "foot." Sense of "accuse a public officer of misconduct" first recorded 1560s, perhaps via confusion with Latin impetere "attack, accuse." Related: Impeached; impeaching.

Wiktionary
impeach

vb. 1 To hinder, impede, or prevent. 2 To bring a legal proceeding against a public official, asserting that because he or she committed some offense, he or she should be removed from office. 3 To charge with impropriety; to discredit; to call into question. 4 (context legal English) To demonstrate in court that a testimony under oath contradicts another testimony from the same person, usually one taken during deposition.

WordNet
impeach

  1. v. challenge the honesty or credibility of; as of witnesses

  2. charge with an offense or misdemeanor; "The public officials were impeached"

  3. charge with a crime or misdemeanor

  4. bring an accusation against; level a charge against; "He charged the man with spousal abuse" [syn: accuse, incriminate, criminate]

Wikipedia
Impeach (motion)

The motion to impeach is used to bring an accusation against a person. A majority vote is needed to put the accused on trial. A majority vote convicts for a minor offense, and a two-thirds vote for a major offense. A vote of censure or reprimand requires majority vote, and suspension or expulsion a two-thirds vote.

Robert's Rules of Order does not have a motion to impeach. However, this book requires a fair disciplinary process which includes appointing a committee to conduct a confidential investigation, report of the committee and preferral of charges if warranted, formal notification of the accused, and trial; and a two-thirds vote is required to expel.

Usage examples of "impeach".

Motel to be followed by the numerous guests into the generous dining area where the bride cut a cake topped by a spun sugar approximation of the towering artifact beyond the glass where their romance had first been kindled amid the passions that had blazed forth here on a darker occasion as the screen revisited the floodlit melee of flying rocks and beer cans, Stars, Bars and Stripes asunder, signs and placards brandished and trampled GOD IS JUDGE aloft and IMPEACH smouldering on the judicial robes of controversy lately put to rest by the conciliatory visit of Senator wait stop it, what are you doing!

Thomas de Vaux, of Lanercost and Gilsland, take trumpet and herald, and go instantly to the tent of him whom they call Archduke of Austria, and see that it be when the press of his knights and vassals is greatest around him, as is likely at this hour, for the German boar breakfasts ere he hears mass-- enter his presence with as little reverence as thou mayest, and impeach him, on the part of Richard of England, that he hath this night, by his own hand, or that of others, stolen from its staff the Banner of England.

The real question is why we are being forced to impeach a president elected by the largest margin in the history of presidential elections.

Leal and loyal as it is the proud vaunt of the Bleater's readers, one and all, to be, the inhabitant who pens this exposure does not personally impeach, either her Majesty the queen, or the illustrious Prince Consort.

She said, "My mother told me that demarchs who get impeached kill themselves.

And not just any Democratic president, but one who was impeached, held in contempt by a federal judge, and disbarred by the Supreme Court.

It is an arresting fact that an impeached, disgraced, disbarred Democratic president successfully rallied liberals to his cause merely by calling his opponents "right-wing Republicans.

The President is shocked, and, I should think, alarmed, for by allowing Belknap to resign, Grant inadvertently (the adverb used by his supporters) made it impossible for Belknap to be impeached, because in the eyes of many constitutional authorities an official may not be impeached, much less convicted of a crime committed in office, when he no longer holds that office.

The ad hominem fallacy consists of attempting to refute an argument by impeaching the character of its proponent.

He would permit Miller, as author of the top-priority measure, to read out to his assembled colleagues and the gallery, “Resolved, that Douglass Dilman, President of the United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors in office.

Then the person being impeached can have a defense, can retain a staff of attorneys—managers, they are called—to combat the charges of the House managers.

The legislator who was impeached, Senator Blount, was not actually tried but was expelled from the Senate, because it was determined that a congressman was not strictly a civil officer.

Eight were impeached, eight were merely censured, twenty-two were acquitted, and seventeen simply resigned their offices and put an end to the proceedings.

Then he knew that there would not be one caption to every photograph, but two, and with cynical amusement he wrote the alternate captions in his head: (A) “The grim and embittered President, shown minutes before learning he was impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors by a majority of the House”.

I’ve been impeached—that’s an awful thing—the second President ever to be impeached for crimes, existent or nonexistent.