impeach

• empeach (obsolete)

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”).

• IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpiːt͡ʃ/
• Rhymes: -iːtʃ

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impeach (third-person singular simple present impeaches, present participle impeaching, simple past and past participle impeached)

1. To hinder, impede, or prevent.
   • 1612, John Davies, Discoverie of the True Causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued:

     These ungracious practices of his sons did impeach his journey to the Holy Land.

   • 1655, James Howell, “To my Father”, in Epistolæ Ho-Elianæ. Familiar Letters Domestic and Forren. […], 3rd edition, volume (please specify the page), London: […] Humphrey Mos[e]ley, […], →OCLC:

     I was afraid the same defluxion of Salt Rheum which fell from my Temples into my Throat in Oxford, and distilling upon the Uvula, impeached my Utterance a little to this Day

2. 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.

3. To charge with impropriety; to discredit; to call into question.
4. (law) To demonstrate in court that a testimony under oath contradicts another testimony from the same person, usually one taken during deposition.

• impeachment

• aphemic