Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To be about to occur.
- intransitive verb To threaten to happen; menace.
- intransitive verb Archaic To jut out; hang suspended.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To overhang; be ready to fall; be imminent; threaten; be on the point of occurring, as something evil.
- To hang over.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To pay.
- intransitive verb To hang over; to be suspended above; to threaten from near at hand; to menace; to be imminent. See
imminent .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb intransitive to be about to
happen oroccur , especially of something which takes some time such as aprocess orprocedure rather than just a shortevent . "To impend" often has the connotation of threat.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb be imminent or about to happen
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The imagination of the beholder was subtly stimulated to conceive the ultimate worst of that which might impend, which is the climax of fear.
Harbor Tales Down North With an Appreciation by Wilfred T. Grenfell, M.D. Norman Duncan 1893
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I was bound by a solemn promise, which I had not yet fulfilled, and dared not break; or, if I did, what manifold miseries might not impend over me and my devoted family!
Chapter 18 2010
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That many worshippers can't help but shed tears during this prayer is understandable, particularly those who have lost loved ones over the past year or for whom death seems to impend.
Menachem Wecker: With Ramadan And Jewish High Holidays Looming, We Should Talk About Hell Menachem Wecker 2011
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I was bound by a solemn promise, which I had not yet fulfilled, and dared not break; or, if I did, what manifold miseries might not impend over me and my devoted family!
Chapter 1 2010
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That many worshippers can't help but shed tears during this prayer is understandable, particularly those who have lost loved ones over the past year or for whom death seems to impend.
Menachem Wecker: With Ramadan And Jewish High Holidays Looming, We Should Talk About Hell Menachem Wecker 2011
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Surely, the heavens will tremble; trade wars impend; the apocalypse of Depression era Smoot Hawley tariffs are about to descend upon us.
Robert L. Borosage: Obama and China: Vandalism or Vision 2009
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Maggie Jackson, in her book, Distracted, suggests that this distraction and loss of focus could impend a coming dark age.
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Much to his surprise, on the eve of his father’s impend death, his father gives him a preview of his will.
Comic Casting Couch - The Way of the Iron Fist | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News 2009
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Maggie Jackson, in her book, Distracted, suggests that this distraction and loss of focus could impend a coming dark age.
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Maggie Jackson, in her book, Distracted, suggests that this distraction and loss of focus could impend a coming dark age.
Email's End? 2009
npydyuan commented on the word impend
"Well, after a while something happened——"
"Oh, no, it didn't. Something impended always, but it never happened."
Stephen Crane, The Third Violet
It's always nice to see a word's less common inflections in use. It had never really occurred to me to use this word in any role but the participial!
Aside: Project Gutenberg rocks!
September 21, 2007
reesetee commented on the word impend
Oh, indeed it does! (And love the quote too.)
September 22, 2007