EMPA'LE, verb transitive [Latin palus.] 1. To fence or fortify with stakes; to set a line of stakes or posts for defense. All that dwell near enemies empale villages, to save themselves from surprise. [We now use stockade, in a like sense.] 2. To inclose; to surround. Round about her work she did empale With a fair border wrought of sundry flowers. 3. To inclose; to shut in. Impenetrable, empal'd with circling fire. 4. To thrust a stake up the fundament, and thus put to death; to put to death by fixing on a stake; a punishment formerly practiced in Rome, and still used in Turkey.
Source: Webster's 1828 American Dictionary ↗ · public-domain · returned verbatim, no AI