impend
/ɪmˈpɛnd/
impend verb: to hang or be suspended over (something); to overhang.
Verb
impend (third-person singular simple present impends, present participle impending, simple past and past participle impended)
- To hang or be suspended over (something); to overhang.
- 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.1789, John Moore, Zeluco, Valancourt, published 2008, page 210
- 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.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 Sep 2015
- To hang over (someone) as a threat or danger.
- To threaten to happen; to be about to happen, to be imminent.
- impending doom
- I, the mother of the only surnamed Glendinning, I feel now as though I had borne the last of a swiftly to be extinguished race. For swiftly to be extinguished is that race, whose only heir but so much as impends upon a deed of shame.1852, Herman Melville, Pierre; or The Ambiguities
- To pay.
impend meaning in Urdu, Bengali and Kannada
impend in Urdu
- کھٹکا ہونا, سر پر لٹکنا
impend in Bengali
- আসন্ন হওয়া, মাথার ওপর ঝুলে থাকা
impend in Kannada
- ಸನ್ನಿಹಿತವಾಗಿರು, ಆಸನ್ನವಾಗಿರು, ಒಡನೆಯೇ ಸಂಭವಿಸುವಂತಿರು
Forms of impend
| third-person singular present | impends |
|---|---|
| present participle | impending |
| past participle | impended |
| past | impended |
Origin of impend
Borrowed from Latin impendere (“to hang over, to weigh out”), 1590s.
Words that rhyme with impend
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- spend
- suspend
- trend
- ascend
- offend
- pretend
- unbend
- commend
- tend
- amend
- contend
- depend
- lend
- distend
- recommend
- rend
- shend
- subtend
- tight end
- upend
- wend
- append
- befriend
- blend
- pend
- resend
- transcend
- abend
- comprehend
- entend
- fend
- obtend
- perpend
- portend
- unfriend
- vend
- weekend
- when'd
- blende
- defriend
- disrecommend
- emend
- expend
- forfend
- forspend
- freakend
- genetic dead end
- heaven forfend
Questions about impend
- What does impend mean?
- Impend means to hang or be suspended over (something); to overhang.
- What is impend in Urdu?
- Impend in Urdu is کھٹکا ہونا, سر پر لٹکنا. See Impend meaning in Urdu.
- What part of speech is impend?
- Impend is a verb.
- How do you pronounce impend?
- Impend is pronounced /ɪmˈpɛnd/.
- What is the past tense of impend?
- The past tense of impend is impended.
Words near impend in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: impend (page history and authors); impend (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Impend (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); impend (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-impend.wav.
Cite this entry: “impend.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/impend. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
