*impress*

v. i. To be impressed; to rest. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Such fiendly thoughts in his heart impress. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Impresses 1. The act of impressing or making. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

The impresses of the insides of these shells. Woodward. [ 1913 Webster ]

This weak impress of love is as a figure
Trenched in ice. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A device. See Impresa. Cussans. [ 1913 Webster ]

To describe . . . emblazoned shields,
Impresses quaint. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Why such impress of shipwrights? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

pred. adj. having the conscious mind deeply or markedly affected or influenced; -- usually used with by or with. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. The quality of being impressible; susceptibility. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. impressible. ] Capable of being impressed; susceptible; sensitive. -- Im*press"i*ble*ness, n. -- Im*press"i*bly, adv. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. impression, L. impressio. ] 1. The act of impressing, or the state of being impressed; the communication of a stamp, mold, style, or character, by external force or by influence. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. That which is impressed; stamp; mark; indentation; sensible result of an influence exerted from without. [ 1913 Webster ]

The stamp and clear impression of good sense. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

To shelter us from impressions of weather, we must spin, we must weave, we must build. Barrow. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which impresses, or exercises an effect, action, or agency; appearance; phenomenon. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Portentous blaze of comets and impressions in the air. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

A fiery impression falling from out of Heaven. Holland. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Influence or effect on the senses or the intellect hence, interest, concern. Reid. [ 1913 Webster ]

His words impression left. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such terrible impression made the dream. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have a father's dear impression,
And wish, before I fall into my grave,
That I might see her married. Ford. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. An indistinct notion, remembrance, or belief. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Impressiveness; emphasis of delivery. [ 1913 Webster ]

Which must be read with an impression. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Print.) The pressure of the type on the paper, or the result of such pressure, as regards its appearance; as, a heavy impression; a clear, or a poor, impression; also, a single copy as the result of printing, or the whole edition printed at a given time; as, a copy from the fifth impression. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ten impressions which his books have had. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. In painting, the first coat of color, as the priming in house painting and the like. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

9. (Engraving) A print on paper from a wood block, metal plate, or the like. [ 1913 Webster ]

Proof impression, one of the early impressions taken from an engraving, before the plate or block is worn. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being impressionable. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. impressionnable. ] Liable or subject to impression; capable of being molded; susceptible; impressible; as, a bad influence on impressionable youths. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was too impressionable; he had too much of the temperament of genius. Motley. [ 1913 Webster ]

A pretty face and an impressionable disposition. T. Hook. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being impressionable. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. impressionnisme. ] (Fine Arts) The theory or method of suggesting an effect or impression without elaboration of the details; -- a disignation of a recent fashion in painting and etching. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. impressionniste. ] (Fine Arts) One who adheres to the theory or method of impressionism in art; especially, a painter who paints in the impressionistic style; as, the skyrocketing prices of paintings by the French impressionists. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Pertaining to, or characterized by, impressionism. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having the quality of not being impressed or affected; not susceptible. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. impressif. ] 1. Making, or tending to make, an impression; having power to impress; adapted to excite attention and feeling, to touch the sensibilities, or affect the conscience; as, an impressive discourse; an impressive scene. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Capable of being impressed. [ Obs. ] Drayton.

-- Im*press"ive*ly, adv. -- Im*press"ive*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of seizing for public use, or of impressing into public service; compulsion to serve; as, the impressment of provisions or of sailors. [ 1913 Webster ]

The great scandal of our naval service -- impressment -- died a protracted death. J. H. Burton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ LL., a printer. ] One who, or that which, impresses. Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. OF. impressure, LL. impressura. ] Dent; impression. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Painting) A theory or practice which is a further development, on more rigorously scientific lines, of the theory and practice of Impressionism, originated by George Seurat (1859-91), and carried on by Paul Signac (1863- -) and others. Its method is marked by the laying of pure primary colors in minute dots upon a white ground, any given line being produced by a variation in the proportionate quantity of the primary colors employed. This method is also known as (stippling). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Painting) In the broadest sense, the theory or practice of any of several groups of painters of the early 1900's, or of these groups taken collectively, whose work and theories have in common a tendency to reaction against the scientific and naturalistic character of impressionism and neo-impressionism. In a strict sense the term post-impressionism is used to denote the effort at self-expression, rather than representation, shown in the work of Cézanne, Matisse, etc.; but it is more broadly used to include cubism, the theory or practice of a movement in both painting and sculpture which lays stress upon volume as the important attribute of objects and attempts its expression by the use of geometrical figures or solids only; and futurism, a theory or practice which attempts to place the observer within the picture and to represent simultaneously a number of consecutive movements and impressions. In practice these theories and methods of the post-impressionists change with great rapidity and shade into one another, so that a picture may be both cubist and futurist in character. They tend to, and sometimes reach, a condition in which both representation and traditional decoration are entirely abolished and a work of art becomes a purely subjective expression in an arbitrary and personal language. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. To impress anew. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A second or repeated impression; a reprint. [ 1913 Webster ]