Advertisement - Continue reading below

Definition of "impend" [im•pend]

  • To be about to occur: Her retirement is impending. (verb-intransitive)
  • To threaten to happen; menace: discouraged by the trouble that impended. (verb-intransitive)
  • Archaic To jut out; hang suspended. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "impend" in a sentence
  • "The imagination of the beholder was subtly stimulated to conceive the ultimate worst of that which might impend, which is the climax of fear."
  • "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!"
  • "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."