impress (2)

t. [Pref. im - in, and English stance to; to saturate. "That common mercury may indeed be spiritually im pregnated, I have been persuaded."- Boyle : Works , i. 647. B. In trans.: To become impregnated or pregnant. *Im-preg-nate, a . [Low Lat. imprægnat us , pa. par. of imprægno = to impregnate: im- = in, and prægnans, prægnas pregnant; Ital. impregn a to; Sp. impregn a do .] 1. To compel to enter the public service as seamen; to seize, and take into service by compulsion. "The power of impre ing seafaring men for the sea service by the king's commi ion, has been a matter of some dispute, and submitted to with great reluctance." Black stone: Commentaries , bk. i., ch. 13. 2. To seize, take, or set apart for the public service; as, to impre a sum of money, to impre provisions. 8. An effect produced upon the mind, conscience, feelings, . "For never was there a mind on which both services and injuries left such faint and transitory impre ions ." -Macaulay: Hist . Eng ., ch. ii. 9. An indistinct notion, remembrance, or belief. "The error, however, was not unnatural to persons who wrote from vague impre ions."-Leiris: Cred. Early Roman Hist . (1855), ii. 96. 10. The effect of an attack or influence excited from without. IMG:content-1529.png:[blocks in formation] impre ionability Im-pres-sion-a-bil-i-tý (sion as shồn), 8. [English impre ionable ; -ity .] The quality or state of being impre ionable; susceptibility of impres sich.