IMPRESS • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Impress

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/ɪmprˈɛs/ /ˈɪmprˌɛs/ Listen

verb

Impress v. t. (past & past part. impressed; pres. part. impressing)

1.

To press, stamp, or print something in or upon; to mark by pressure, or as by pressure; to imprint (that which bears the impression). "His heart, like an agate, with your print impressed."

2.

To produce by pressure, as a mark, stamp, image, etc.; to imprint (a mark or figure upon something).

3.

Fig.: To fix deeply in the mind; to present forcibly to the attention, etc.; to imprint; to inculcate. "Impress the motives of persuasion upon our own hearts till we feel the force of them."

4.

To take by force for public service; as, to impress sailors or money. "The second five thousand pounds impressed for the service of the sick and wounded prisoners."

Impress v. i. To be impressed; to rest. (Obs.) "Such fiendly thoughts in his heart impress."

noun

Impress n. (pl. impresses)

1.

The act of impressing or making.

2.

A mark made by pressure; an indentation; imprint; the image or figure of anything, formed by pressure or as if by pressure; result produced by pressure or influence. "The impresses of the insides of these shells." "This weak impress of love is as a figure Trenched in ice."

3.

Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp.

4.

A device. See Impresa. "To describe... emblazoned shields, Impresses quaint."

5.

The act of impressing, or taking by force for the public service; compulsion to serve; also, that which is impressed. "Why such impress of shipwrights?"

Impress gang, a party of men, with an officer, employed to impress seamen for ships of war; a press gang.

Impress money, a sum of money paid, immediately upon their entering service, to men who have been impressed.

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Etymology of 'Impress'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Impress" Quotes from Famous Books

... character. She was endowed by nature with a high temper, and with a tendency to act from impulse rather than from reason. To these qualities were added great energy and strength of will. She brought up her son in the straitest of theological creeds, which left a certain permanent mental impress upon him, though during the last quarter of a century of his life he wandered far afield from the religious teachings of his childhood. He seems to have been born with a genuine love for knowledge, for, ...

— The Story of the Upper Canada Rebellion, Volume 1 • John Charles Dent

... the unhappy wretch; he understood what his life and feelings were. And besides, the magistrate—for a magistrate is always a magistrate—knowing nothing of Jacques Collin's career since his escape from prison, fancied that he could impress the criminal who, after all, had only been sentenced for forgery. He would try the effect of generosity on this nature, a compound, like bronze, of various elements, of good ...

— Scenes from a Courtesan's Life • Honore de Balzac

... her milk-bearer votaries As warm of bosom-earth as she; of the source Direct; erratic but in heart's excess; Being mortal and ill-matched for Love's great force; Like green leaves caught with flames by his impress. And pray they under skies less overcast, That swiftly may her star of eve descend, Her lustrous morning star fly not too fast, To lengthen ...

— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith

... adornment, stood the daughter. In one, a magnificent swallow-tail, fleecy shirt-frill, and snowy gloves had stamped their wearer with a look of hopeless absurdity; in the other, exquisite taste, gentle dignity, and true courtesy bore the impress of glorious womanhood. I was positively bewildered. Could the father of that lovely girl be the wretch the world hooted at? Could the owner of all this grandeur be the Beast I fancied ...

— Trifles for the Christmas Holidays • H. S. Armstrong

... boys. After that the 'new boy' was left to his own devices, - QUA 'new boy,' that is; as an ordinary small boy, I had my share. I have spoken of the starvation at Dr. Pinkney's; here it was the terrible bullying that left its impress on me - literally its mark, for I still bear the scar ...

— Tracks of a Rolling Stone • Henry J. Coke

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