impart

What it means

1. transitiveTo give or bestow (e.g. a quality or property).

   The sun imparts warmth.

   3 more examples

   to impart food to the poor

   He describes the operation thus: "The heavy ram employed to impart the finishing strokes, hoisted up with double purchase and snail's pace to the summit of the Piling Engine, and then falling down like a thunderbolt on the head of the devoted timber, driving it perhaps a single half inch in to the stratum below, is well calculated to put to the test the virtue of patience, while it illustrates the old adage of—slow and sure."

   1952 July 28, W. R. Watson, “Sankey Viaduct and Embankment”, in Railway Magazine, page 487

   Along the way, they meet Master Wong, who teaches them kung fu and imparts nuggets of Chinese philosophy, knowledge and training that they eventually use to defeat their nemesis and save their village.

   2021 March 31, Melissa Chen, “Opinion ‘Kung Fu Cavemen’ isn’t racist — just the victim of moral panic by a self-righteous few”, in New York Post

2. transitiveTo give a part or to share.

   Did not Mazzini impart his spirit to divided Italy, and make her one?

   1907, Charles Henry Vine, The Old Faith and the New Theology

   2 more examples

   Expressing well the spirit within thee [Adam] free, / My [God's] image, not imparted to the brute.

   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, line 440

   Cary Grant imparts his ineffable charm, Kennedy (with metal hand) provides comic brutality, while Hepburn is elegantly fraught.

   2002, John Pym, Time Out Film Guide, page 202

   Synonyms: bequeath, bestow, give, accord, add, assign, award, bestow

3. transitiveTo make known; to show (by speech, writing etc.).

   Well may he then to you his cares impart.

   1662, John Dryden, letter to Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon

   2 more examples

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

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]

   The departure was not unduly prolonged. […] Within the door Mrs. Spoker hastily imparted to Mrs. Love a few final sentiments on the subject of Divine Intention in the disposition of buckets; farewells and last commiserations; a deep, guttural instigation to the horse; and the wheels of the waggonette crunched heavily away into obscurity.

   1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC

   Synonyms: disclose, tell, announce, forerun, blare, declare, disclose, herald

In a sentence

The sun imparts warmth.

Where it comes from

1. Latinpartiō“divide”
2. Late Latinimpartiō
3. Middle Frenchimpartir
4. Middle Englishimparten
5. Englishimpart

From Middle English imparten, borrowed from Middle French impartir, empartir, from Late Latin impartiō, impertiō, from im- (“in”) + Latin partiō (“divide”).