impress

Formsimpresses, impressing, impressed

Pluralimpresses

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To affect someone strongly, often in a way that wins their admiration or approval.

   His calm handling of the crisis impressed everyone in the room.

   She hoped the polished presentation would impress the investors.

   Similardazzle, awe, amaze, wow, astonish

   Oppositedisappoint, underwhelm

   Note

   Latin imprimere, to press into or stamp, lies behind the everyday sense. What impresses a person leaves a mark, much as a seal does in wax. The usual pattern is impress someone with something (you impressed me with your command of Urdu), and the passive is common: suitably impressed, not impressed much. Keep it apart from the "instill" meaning, where the idea goes on or upon the person.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To make a strong, favorable impression; to come across as genuinely impressive.

   The young pianist impressed at her debut concert.

   These early results impress, even if the methods were unconventional.

   Similarshine, dazzle, excel

   Oppositedisappoint, underwhelm

   Note

   Here the verb drops its object: a player simply impresses, and the reader supplies the audience. It is at home in sports reporting. Phil McNulty's 2012 BBC Sport report has Tom Cleverley impressing on his first competitive start. It usually comes with an occasion attached: in a first game as captain, at a debut, on a start.

3. 3
   verbfigurativelytransitive

   To fix something deeply in the mind; to urge it forcibly on someone's attention or instill it in them.

   He impressed upon his students the need for careful research.

   She wanted to impress on them how serious the danger really was.

   Similarstress, emphasize, instill, urge

   Note

   Teachers and preachers use this construction: impress something on or upon someone, with the idea as the object and the person after the preposition. Isaac Watts in 1741 wants the motives of persuasion impressed "upon our own hearts, till we feel the force and power of them." With the person as the object instead, the verb means striking someone with admiration: impress caution on students, but impress students with skill.

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To mark or stamp something by applying pressure to its surface.

   The jeweler impressed the silver ring with a tiny hallmark.

   Craftsmen impress each leather case with the company logo.

   Similarstamp, emboss, imprint, mark, brand

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To produce a vivid, lasting impression of something in the mind.

   The documentary impressed the sheer scale of the disaster on every viewer.

   The guide tried to impress the painting's hidden details on the tourists.

   Similarimprint, stamp, fix, engrave, instill

   Note

   A reflexive pattern suits this sense well: a sight impresses itself on the mind, as a first view of the Eiger does. The scene is the subject and does its own stamping, and the viewer is only where the mark lands. When a person deliberately drives an idea home instead, the verb belongs to the "instill" meaning.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To produce a mark, stamp, or image by imprinting it on a surface.

   The printer impressed a watermark visible only under bright light.

   Mints impress an intricate design onto each newly struck coin.

   Similarimprint, stamp, print, emboss

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To compel someone, by force and without consent, to serve in a military force.

   British ships often impressed American seamen in the early 1800s.

   Recruiters would impress any able-bodied man they found near the docks.

   Similarpress, conscript, draft

   Note

   Naval history is where this sense lives: the press gang impressed men into the Navy. The pattern is impress someone into a service, and the object is always a person. When ships, grain or vehicles were taken instead, the same verb meant seizing property.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To seize or confiscate property by force, especially for public or military service.

   During the siege, officials impressed grain from local merchants.

   Commanders could impress any vehicle needed to transport the wounded.

   Similarcommandeer, requisition, seize, confiscate, appropriate

   Note

   Where forced military service takes people, this sense takes things: ships, grain and vehicles, claimed for public use. The construction impress as or impress for names the new role, as in a liner impressed as a troop carrier. John Evelyn's diary of 1665 uses the older spelling imprest, for funds set aside for sick and wounded prisoners. It is the vocabulary of wartime requisition, not of ordinary seizure.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A lasting effect or impression left on the mind or imagination.

   The war left a profound impress on the nation's collective memory.

   Childhood reading can leave an impress that shapes a whole life.

   Similarimpression, imprint, mark, effect, stamp

   Note

   Here the stamp-in-wax picture moves into the mind. Things leave an impress on minds or imaginations, and leave is the verb to pair it with. John Burrow's A History of Histories (2007) describes the Authorized Version's admonitions leaving "an indelible impress on imaginations nurtured on the Bible." Indelible suits the word, which always implies a mark that stays.

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A mark or copy produced by pressing one thing against another.

    The ancient tablet bore the impress of a royal signet.

    Each tile showed the faint impress of the carved mold.

    Similarimprint, impression, mark, print, stamp

    Note

    The noun for a physical copy has a long literary history. In Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, a "weak impress of love" is "as a figure / Trenched in ice." The working phrase is take an impress of something. In Arthur Conan Doyle's The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans (1908), a man short of money takes an impress of his brother's keys.

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