To fix upon a stake; drive or thrust a sharpened stake through: an ancient and Oriental mode of capital punishment.Hence Figuratively, to render helpless as if pierced through or impaled: as, to impale a person upon his own argument or upon the horns of a dilemma.To surround or inclose with or as with stakes, posts, or palisades.In heraldry, to display side by side on one shield, separated palewise each from the other, as when the arms of husband and wife are represented together.Hence — To place side by side as of similar importance and signification.