IMPE'ACH, verb transitive [Latin pango, pactus.]

1. To hinder; to impede. This sense is found in our early writers.

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

A defluxion on my throat impeached my utterance.

[This application of the word is obsolete.]

2. To accuse; to charge with a crime or misdemeanor; but appropriately, to exhibit charges of maladministration against a public officer before a competent tribunal, that is, to send or put on, to load. The word is now restricted to accusations made by authority; as, to impeach a judge. [See Impeachment.]

3. To accuse; to censure; to call in question; as, to impeach one's motives or conduct.

4. To call to account; to charge as answerable.

IMPE'ACH, noun Hinderance.