impress

From Middle English impressen, from Latin impressus, perfect passive participle of imprimere (“to press into or upon, stick, stamp, or dig into”), from in (“in, upon”) + premere (“to press”).

• (verb)
  • enPR: ĭmprĕsʹ, IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɹɛs/

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  • Rhymes: -ɛs
• (noun)
  • enPR: ĭmʹprĕs, IPA^(key): /ˈɪmpɹɛs/

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Hyphenation: im‧press

impress (third-person singular simple present impresses, present participle impressing, simple past and past participle impressed)

1. (transitive) To affect (someone) strongly and often favourably.

   You impressed me with your command of Urdu.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.

   • 1998, “That Don't Impress Me Much”, in Come On Over, performed by Shania Twain:

     Okay, so you're a rocket scientist / That don't impress me much

2. (intransitive) To make an impression, to be impressive.

   Henderson impressed in his first game as captain.

   • 2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     Manchester United's Tom Cleverley impressed on his first competitive start and Lampard demonstrated his continued worth at international level in a performance that was little more than a stroll once England swiftly exerted their obvious authority.

3. (transitive) To produce a vivid impression of (something).

   That first view of the Eiger impressed itself on my mind.

4. (transitive) To mark or stamp (something) using pressure.

   We impressed our footprints in the wet cement.

   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     Gentle lady, / When I did first impart my love to you.

5. To produce (a mark, stamp, image, etc.); to imprint (a mark or figure upon something).
6. (figurative) To fix deeply in the mind; to present forcibly to the attention, etc.; to imprint; to inculcate.
   • 1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC:

     impress the motives and methods of persuasion upon our own hearts, till we feel the force and power of them.

7. (transitive) To compel (someone) to serve in a military force.

   The press gang used to impress people into the Navy.

8. (transitive) To seize or confiscate (property) by force.

   The liner was impressed as a troop carrier.

   • 1665 April 29 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 19 April 1665]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

     the second £5,000 imprest for the service of the sick and wounded prisoners

• (transitive: affect strongly and often favourably): make an impression on
• (intransitive: make an impression, be impressive): cut a figure
• (produce a vivid impression of):
• (mark or stamp (something) using pressure): imprint, print, stamp
• (compel (someone) to serve in a military force): pressgang
• (seize or confiscate (property) by force): confiscate, impound, seize, sequester

impress (plural impresses)

1. The act of impressing.
2. An impression; an impressed image or copy of something.
   • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:

     This weak impress of love is as a figure / Trenched in ice.

   • 1908, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, Norton, published 2005, page 1330:

     We know that you were pressed for money, that you took an impress of the keys which your brother held […]

3. A stamp or seal used to make an impression.
4. An impression on the mind, imagination etc.
   • 2007, John Burrow, A History of Histories, Penguin, published 2009, page 187:

     Such admonitions, in the English of the Authorized Version, left an indelible impress on imaginations nurtured on the Bible […]

5. Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:

     we have God surveying the works of the creation, and leaving this general impress or character upon them

   • 1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practive and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 260:

     As he himself [Sir Nigel Gresley] would doubtless have wished, he died in harness; only a few weeks previously he had been present at the first public view of his latest design, the Bantam Cock, which, like most of his products, bore all over it the impress of his personality.

6. A heraldic device; an impresa.
   • 1869, John Edwin Cussans, Handbook of Heraldry:

     It commonly occurred that Knights who , on entering the Lists , wished to conceal their identity , would assume a Device with an allusive Motto , which was designated an IMPRESS

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     To describe […] emblazon'd Shields, / Impreses quaint.

7. The act of impressing, or taking by force for the public service; compulsion to serve; also, that which is impressed.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

     Why such impress of shipwrights?

• impressed
• impression
• impressive
• impressively

• “impress”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “impress”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “impress”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Persism, Simpers, mispers, permiss, premiss, simpers