impress

present singular third person impresses · participle present impressing · participle past impressed · past impressed

1. transitiveTo affect (someone) strongly and often favourably; to inspire admiration from (someone).

   You impressed me with your command of Urdu.

   2 more examples

   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.

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

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

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

   Synonyms: make an impression, grab

   1. intransitivetransitiveTo make an impression; to be impressive; to arouse interest or favor.

      Henderson impressed in his first game as captain.

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      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.

      2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport

      Synonyms: make an impression, grab, cut a figure

2. transitiveTo mark or stamp (something) using pressure; to apply (something) using pressure.

   We impressed our footprints in the wet cement.

   1 more example

   Then he impresses the die into the clay to produce a design on the surface.

   Synonyms: press

   1. transitiveTo produce (a mark, stamp, image, etc.); to imprint (a mark or figure upon something).

      He impressed his signature into the wax.

      Synonyms: press, imprint, print, stamp

   2. figurativelyintransitivereflexivetransitiveTo produce a vivid impression of (something); to convince someone of one's nature.

      I will impress the schedule upon her.

      2 more examples

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

      She impressed as a good candidate for the job.

      Synonyms: press, burn

   3. figurativelytransitiveTo fix deeply in the mind; to present forcibly to the attention, etc.; to cause someone to understand and accept something.

      She is impressing the rules onto the students.

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      You have to impress the new vocabulary into your mind.

      The doctor impressed the importance of the diet to me.

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

      1741, I[saac] Watts, The Improvement of the Mind: Or, A Supplement to the Art of Logick: […], London: […] James Brackstone, […], →OCLC

      Synonyms: press, imprint, inculcate

3. transitiveTo transfer or transmit.

   His actions impress a message of selfishness to us all.

   1 more example

   The money was impressed into the hands of the financial ministry.

   Synonyms: pass

   1. figurativelytransitivebusinessTo transfer voltage onto metalwork through induced or capacitative processes.

      This process will impress voltage into the metal.

      Synonyms: pass

4. transitiveTo compel (someone) to serve in a military force.

   The press gang used to impress people into the Navy.

   Synonyms: pressgang

   1. historicaltransitiveTo seize or confiscate (property) by force, especially for military use.

      The liner was impressed as a troop carrier.

      1 more example

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

      1665 April 28 (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

      Synonyms: pressgang, confiscate, impound, seize, sequester

plural impresses

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]

   1 more example

   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 them

   1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London

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   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.

   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

   1 more example

   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

   1869, John Edwin Cussans, Handbook of Heraldry

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]