MEANING
1. To bring a formal charge of serious misconduct against a public official.
2. To challenge the honesty, reliability, or truthfulness of a person, statement, or body of evidence.
Use it for
describing a constitutional accusation accurately; distinguishing an accusation from conviction or removal; avoiding the assumption that impeachment itself decides guiltDistinguishes a formal accusation against an office-holder from challenging the credibility of evidence or a witness. Writing functions: Evidence, Argumentation.
Words that belong together
- impeach an official
- impeach a president
- a vote to impeach
On the page
The chapter distinguishes the decision to impeach the official from the later judgment on the charge.
The assembly voted to impeach, but the vote did not itself resolve the factual dispute.
The contradictory dates impeach the account’s reliability without identifying which version is correct.
The critic tries to impeach the narrator’s honesty by comparing the two descriptions.
Word forms
- Base
- impeach
- Past tense
- impeached
- Past participle
- impeached
- Present participle
- impeaching
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- impeach
- Present continuous
- am/is/are impeaching
- Present perfect
- have/has impeached
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been impeaching
- Past
- impeached
- Past continuous
- was/were impeaching
- Past perfect
- had impeached
- Past perfect continuous
- had been impeaching
- Future
- will impeach
- Future continuous
- will be impeaching
- Future perfect
- will have impeached
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been impeaching
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
Usage notes
Transitive: impeaches, impeached, impeached, impeaching; future will impeach. Impeach an official, credibility, or testimony; no required of before the object. Register: formal. Commonness: moderately common in political reporting; less common in general criticism (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
Keep a thought for later. Sign in to save privately.