Imprese
(Im*prese") n. A device. See Impresa.
An imprese, as the Italians call it, is a device in picture with his motto or word, borne by noble or learned
personages.
Camden. Impress
(Im*press") v. t. [imp. & p. p. Impressed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Impressing.] [L. impressus,
p. p. of imprimere to impress; pref. im- in, on + premere to press. See Press to squeeze, and cf.
Imprint.]
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.
Shak. 2. To produce by pressure, as a mark, stamp, image, etc.; to imprint
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.
I. Watts. 4. [See Imprest, Impress, n., 5.] 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.
Evelyn. Impress
(Im*press"), v. i. To be impressed; to rest. [Obs.]
Such fiendly thoughts in his heart impress.
Chaucer. Impress
(Im"press) 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.
Woodward.
This weak impress of love is as a figure
Trenched in ice.
Shak. 3. Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp. South.
4. A device. See Impresa. Cussans.
To describe . . . emblazoned shields,
Impresses quaint.
Milton. 5. [See Imprest, Press to force into service.] 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?
Shak. 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.
Impressibility
(Im*press`i*bil"i*ty) n. The quality of being impressible; susceptibility.
