impalement

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

im•pale /ɪmˈpeɪl/   v. [~ + object] , -paled, -pal•ing. 

1. to pierce through (something or someone's body):
   The spear impaled his wrist.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

im•pale  (im pāl′), v.t., -paled, -pal•ing. 

1. to fasten, stick, or fix upon a sharpened stake or the like.
2. to pierce with a sharpened stake thrust up through the body, as for torture or punishment.
3. to fix upon, or pierce through with, anything pointed.
4. to make helpless as if pierced through.
5. [Archaic.] to enclose with or as if with pales or stakes;
   fence in;
   hem in.
6. Heraldry.
   • to marshal (two coats of arms, as the family arms of a husband and wife) on an escutcheon party per pale.
   • (of a coat of arms) to be combined with (another coat of arms) in this way.

Also, empale (for defs. 1–5).

• Medieval Latin impālāre, equivalent. to Latin im- im-¹ + pāl(us) pale² + -ā- thematic vowel + -re infinitive ending
• 1545–55

im•pal′er, n. 
im•pale′ment, n.