Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To sue (a third party) in a lawsuit that has already been commenced as a defendant who may be liable for the claim that is the subject of the suit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To sue or prosecute by judicial proceedings: as, the corporation shall have power to plead and be impleaded.
  • To impeach; accuse.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb (Law) To institute and prosecute a suit against, in court; to sue or prosecute at law; hence, to accuse; to impeach.
  • intransitive verb To sue at law.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb law To sue in court, to raise an action against a defendant.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English empleden, from Anglo-Norman empleder, variant of Old French emplaider : en-, intensive pref. (from Latin in-; see in–) + plaidier, to plead; see plead.]

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