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.
Im*press" , v. i. To be impressed; to rest. [Obs.]
Such fiendly thoughts in his heart
impress.
Chaucer.
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 (a
mark or figure upon something).
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.
Hear it pronounced