impeachment - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

im·peach·ment

Audio Help [im-peech-muh

nt] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	the impeaching of a public official before an appropriate tribunal.

2.	(in Congress or a state legislature) the presentation of formal charges against a public official by the lower house, trial to be before the upper house.

3.	demonstration that a witness is less worthy of belief.

4.	the act of impeaching.

5.	the state of being impeached.

[Origin: 1350–1400; ME empechement < AF. See impeach, -ment

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
impeachment

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

im·peach Audio Help (ĭm-pēch') Pronunciation Key
tr.v. im·peached, im·peach·ing, im·peach·es

1. To make an accusation against.
2. To charge (a public official) with improper conduct in office before a proper tribunal.
To challenge the validity of; try to discredit: impeach a witness's credibility.

[Middle English empechen, to impede, accuse, from Anglo-Norman empecher, from Late Latin impedicāre, to entangle : Latin in-, in; see in-² + Latin pedica, fetter; see ped- in Indo-European roots.]

im·peach'er n., im·peach'ment n.

Word History: Nothing hobbles a President so much as impeachment, and there is an etymological as well as a procedural reason for this. The word impeach can be traced back through Anglo-Norman empecher to Late Latin impedicāre, "to catch, entangle," from Latin pedica, "fetter for the ankle, snare." Thus we find that Middle English empechen, the ancestor of our word, means such things as "to cause to get stuck fast," "hinder or impede," "interfere with," and "criticize unfavorably." A legal sense of empechen is first recorded in 1384. This sense, which had previously developed in Old French, was "to accuse, bring charges against."

Usage Note: When an irate citizen demands that a disfavored public official be impeached, the citizen clearly intends for the official to be removed from office. This popular use of impeach as a synonym of "throw out" (even if by due process) does not accord with the legal meaning of the word. As recent history has shown, when a public official is impeached, that is, formally accused of wrongdoing, this is only the start of what can be a lengthy process that may or may not lead to the official's removal from office. In strict usage, an official is impeached (accused), tried, and then convicted or acquitted. The vaguer use of impeach reflects disgruntled citizens' indifference to whether the official is forced from office by legal means or chooses to resign to avoid further disgrace.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

impeachment
noun
a formal document charging a public official with misconduct in office

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
impeachment

A formal accusation of wrongdoing against a public official. According to the United States Constitution, the House of Representatives can vote to impeach an official, but the Senate actually tries the case. Several presidencies have been blemished by impeachment or the threat of impeachment: President Andrew Johnson was impeached after the Civil War but was acquitted. President Richard Nixon resigned from office as the House of Representatives prepared to initiate impeachment proceedings. President William Jefferson Clinton was impeached in 1998 but was acquitted by the Senate the following year.

[Chapter:] American Politics

The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Impeachment

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 judgement 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.

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