impress
noun/ˈɪmpɹɛs/
Etymology 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”).
7 senses
- 1The act of impressing.
- 2An impression; an impressed image or copy of something.
- 3A stamp or seal used to make an impression.
- 4An impression on the mind, imagination etc.
- 5Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp.
- 6A heraldic device; an impresa.
- 7The act of impressing, or taking by force for the public…
1
The act of impressing.
2
An impression; an impressed image or copy of something.
- This weak impress of love is as a figure / Trenched in ice.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]:
- We know that you were pressed for money, that you took an impress of the keys which your brother held […]1908, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, Norton, published 2005, page 1330:
3
A stamp or seal used to make an impression.
4
An impression on the mind, imagination etc.
- Such admonitions, in the English of the Authorized Version, left an indelible impress on imaginations nurtured on the Bible […]2007, John Burrow, A History of Histories, Penguin, published 2009, page 187:
5
Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp.
- we have God surveying the works of the creation, and leaving this general impress or character upon them1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
- 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.1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practive and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 260:
6
A heraldic device; an impresa.
- 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 IMPRESS1869, John Edwin Cussans, Handbook of Heraldry:
- To describe […] emblazon'd Shields, / Impreses quaint.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:
7
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?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]:
- Derived terms
- impressable, impressed, impresser, impressible, impression, impressive, impressively, impressment, impresstaurant, overimpress, reimpress, underimpress, unimpress