9 February 2017
impugn
[im-pyoon]
verb (used with object)
1. to challenge as false (another’s statements, motives, etc.); cast doubt upon.
2. Archaic. to assail (a person) by words or arguments; vilify.
3. Obsolete. to attack (a person) physically.
Origin of impugn
Middle English, Middle French, Latin
1325-1375; Middle English impugnen < Middle French impugner < Latin impugnāre to attack, equivalent to im- im-1+ pugnāre to fight, derivative of pugnus fist; see pugnacious
Related forms
impugnable, adjective
impugnability, noun
impugner, noun
impugnment, noun
unimpugnable, adjective
Can be confused
impugn, impute.
Synonyms
1. attack, asperse, malign, criticize, censure.
Dictionary.com
Examples from the Web for impugn
Contemporary Examples
Defense lawyers will look for inconsistencies in the same records as they try to impugn her credibility further.
The Evidence That Could Doom DSK
Christopher Dickey, John Solomon
July 25, 2011
“I think the jury will see it as a desperate attempt to try and impugn his character,” Slotnick says.
Jodi Arias’s Baffling Defense Strategy
Christine Pelisek
February 16, 2013
Historical Examples
No one, I think, will venture to impugn the motives or the purity of the intentions of Miss Heald in taking this step.
Lola Montez
Edmund B. d’Auvergne
Not being able to impugn her beauty, they attacked her costume.
Notre-Dame de Paris
Victor Hugo
We take refuge in a grievance rather than impugn the supremacy of our ego.
Appletons’ Popular Science Monthly, Vol. 56, March 1900
Various
“I am not attempting to impugn the qualifications of the witness,” I snapped.
…Or Your Money Back
Gordon Randall Garrett
His choice was unexceptionable: and those who impugn it are blind.
Northern Spain
Edgar T. A. Wigram
Nor in the town, nor among the caste, could any one impugn the act.
Tara
Philip Meadows Taylor
What we have to do is an act of justice, and I don’t wish that anyone should be able to impugn my motives.
Jack Harkaway and His Son’s Escape From the Brigand’s of Greece
Bracebridge Hemyng
To suppose it so little as most people do, is to impugn the justice of Providence.
Life Without and Life Within
Margaret Fuller
Anagram
mug pin
Today’s quote
I have fallen in love with the imagination. And if you fall in love with the imagination, you understand that it is a free spirit. It will go anywhere, and it can do anything.
– Alice Walker
On this day
9 February 1944 – birth of Alice Walker, American author, poet and activist. She grew up in the America’s deep south, under the notorious ‘Jim Crow’ laws which segrated whites and blacks. She has since written numerous books, including the Pulitzer Award winning ‘The Color Purple’ which addressed much of the issues facing society in Georgia in the 1930s.
9 February 1981 – death of Bill Haley, who arguably had the world’s first ever rock’n’roll song, ‘Rock Around the Clock’. He was born 6 July 1925.
9 February 1997 – death of Brian Connolly, Scottish rocker, lead singer of Sweet (Fox on the Run, Ballroom Blitz, Teenage Rampage, Action). Born 5 October 1945.