online medical dictionary | definition of impress

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. 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, 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)

Origin: L. Impressus, p. P. Of imprimere to impress; pref. Im- in, on + premere to press. See Press to squeeze, and cf. Imprint.

To be impressed; to rest. "Such fiendly thoughts in his heart impress." (Chaucer)

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.

4. A device. See Impresa. "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.

(01 Mar 1998)