imposing
- 1Magnificent and impressive in appearance, owing to great size, stateliness, or dignity.
Like a grand old courthouse that seems to look down on everyone passing by.
The cathedral's imposing facade dominated the entire city skyline.
She cut an imposing figure as she strode into the boardroom.
Similarimpressive, grand, majestic, stately, commanding
Oppositemodest, humble, unimpressive, unassuming
Note
An adjective that has grown out of its verb. It keeps the force of the participle, to affect strongly, but turns it into a lasting quality. It grades like any adjective (more imposing, most imposing) and settles on things that are seen: a building, a sight, a presence, a figure. Cut an imposing figure is the standing phrase for a person whose bearing commands attention.
- 2Present participle and gerund of impose.
The government is imposing new tariffs on imported steel.
Imposing such tight deadlines on the volunteers seemed unfair.
Note
The verb form behind several uses. As a gerund it names the act itself (the imposing of taxes); as a participle it builds progressive tenses (is imposing new tariffs). Used without an object, it means intruding or presuming, as in imposing on someone's time. Printers kept an older physical sense in the imposing stone, where pages of type were laid out. Keep it apart from the "magnificent" adjective: a government is imposing in one sense, a cathedral in the other.
Showing meanings only.
imposing is a form of impose
impose, verb: To establish or enforce a rule, tax, or penalty by authority, especially one people find burdensome. Full entry
- Spelling
- impose → imposing: drop the e, add -ing
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