impend

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English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin impendere (to hang over, to weigh out), 1590s.[1]

Pronunciation

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Verb

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impend (third-person singular simple present impends, present participle impending, simple past and past participle impended)

  1. (obsolete) To hang or be suspended over (something); to overhang.
    • 1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt, published 2008, page 210:
      The Earl had often heard of a rich citizen [] and the peculiar charm of a little snug rotunda which he had just finished on the verge of his ground, and which impended the great London road.
    • 1857, Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, “עַל (Strong's H5921) definition (A)(3)(a)”, in Gesenius' Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon, London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, retrieved 27 September 2015:
      when a thing really impends over another, e.g. when one stands at a fountain (עַל־עֵין), over which one really leans
      When a thing really impends over another, e.g. when one stands at a fountain (עַל־עֵין), over which one really leans.
  2. (intransitive, figurative) To hang over (someone) as a threat or danger.
  3. (intransitive) To threaten to happen; to be about to happen, to be imminent.
    impending doom
  4. (obsolete) To pay.

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “impend”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

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