impose

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French imposer (“to lay on, impose”), taking the place of Latin imponere (“to lay on, impose”), from in (“on, upon”) + ponere (“to put, place”).

verb

1. (transitive) To establish or apply by authority.
   Congress imposed new tariffs.
   Suzy says "It's foolish for society to impose the restriction of one man to the married woman." March 17, 1975, Marian Christy, “Suzy Chaffee, A Liberated Beauty”, in Lebanon Daily News, page 37
   Localities across New Jersey imposed curfews to prevent looting. In Monmouth, Ocean and other counties, people waited for hours for gasoline at the few stations that had electricity. Supermarket shelves were stripped bare. October 31 2012, David M. Halbfinger, New York Times, retrieved 2012-10-31
2. (intransitive) To be an inconvenience. (on or upon)
   I don't wish to impose upon you.
3. To enforce: compel to behave in a certain way.
   Social relations impose courtesy.
   Norwich soon began imposing themselves on that patched-up defence with Holt having their best early chance, only to see it blocked by Simpson. December 10, 2011, Arindam Rej, “Norwich 4 - 2 Newcastle”, in BBC Sport
   In the same year as the Furness objection, sadder tidings befell St Pancras Priory at Lewes, in East Sussex. Despite it having the distinction of being the earliest Cluniac monastery in Great Britain, petitions to prevent the Brighton Lewes & Hastings Railway from imposing on its site with its Lewes line failed. The line was approved and, as if as an act of deliberate desecration and assertion of the railways' power, passed over the site of the high altar. January 12 2022, Dr. Joseph Brennan, “Castles: ruined and redeemed by rail”, in RAIL, number 948, page 57
4. To practice a trick or deception (on or upon).
5. To lay on, as the hands, in the religious rites of confirmation and ordination.
6. To arrange in proper order on a table of stone or metal and lock up in a chase for printing; said of columns or pages of type, forms, etc.
7. To place an encumbrance or burden on.
   Detailed records are kept of the strains imposed on the bridge by the violent gales that frequently sweep the firth, and a self-recording wind gauge is fixed on the top of the tower. 1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in Railway Magazine, page 149