Implement, n.
Etymology: [LL. implementum accomplishment, fr. L. implere, impletum, to fill up, finish, complete; pref. im- in + plere to fill. The word was perh. confuse with OF. empleier, emploier, to employ, F. employer, whence E. employ. See Plenty.]
That which fulfills or supplies a want or use; esp., an instrument, toll, or utensil, as supplying a requisite to an end; as, the implements of trade, of husbandry, or of war. Genius must have talent as its complement and implement. Coleridge.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Implement, v. t.
1. To accomplish; to fulfill. [R.] Revenge . . . executed and implemented by the hand of Vanbeest Brown. Sir W. Scott.
2. To provide with an implement or implements; to cause to be fulfilled, satisfied, or carried out, by means of an implement or implements. The chief mechanical requisites of the barometer are implemented in such an instrument as the following. Nichol.
3. (Scots Law)
To fulfill or perform, as a contract or an engagement.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for implement; he lists it under tool.
Where he writes about it:
An implement is a mechanical agency considered with reference to some specific purpose to which it is adapted; as, an agricultural implement; implements of war. — from tool
Implement is a less technical and artificial term than tool. — from tool
The paw of a tiger might be termed a terrible implement, but not a tool. — from tool
Implement is for the most part and utensil is altogether restricted to the literal sense; instrument, machine, and tool have figurative use, instrument being used largely in a good, tool always in a bad sense; machine inclines to the unfavorable sense, as implying that human agents are made mechanically subservient to some controlling will; as, an instrument of Providence; the tool of a tyrant; a political machine. — from tool