impress

Etymology

From Middle English impressen, from Latin impressus, perfect passive participle of imprimere (“to press into or upon, stick, stamp, or dig into”), from in (“in, upon”) + premere (“to press”).

verb

1. (transitive) To affect (someone) strongly and often favourably.
   You impressed me with your command of Urdu.
   Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected. 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess
   Okay, so you're a rocket scientist / That don't impress me much 1998, “That Don't Impress Me Much”, in Come On Over, performed by Shania Twain
2. (intransitive) To make an impression, to be impressive.
   Henderson impressed in his first game as captain.
   Manchester United's Tom Cleverley impressed on his first competitive start and Lampard demonstrated his continued worth at international level in a performance that was little more than a stroll once England swiftly exerted their obvious authority. September 7, 2012, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport
3. (transitive) To produce a vivid impression of (something).
   That first view of the Eiger impressed itself on my mind.
4. (transitive) To mark or stamp (something) using pressure.
   We impressed our footprints in the wet cement.
5. To produce (a mark, stamp, image, etc.); to imprint (a mark or figure upon something).
6. (figurative) To fix deeply in the mind; to present forcibly to the attention, etc.; to imprint; to inculcate.
7. (transitive) To compel (someone) to serve in a military force.
   The press gang used to impress people into the Navy.
8. (transitive) To seize or confiscate (property) by force.
   The liner was impressed as a troop carrier.
   the second £5,000 imprest for the service of the sick and wounded prisoners

noun

1. The act of impressing.
2. An impression; an impressed image or copy of something.
   We know that you were pressed for money, that you took an impress of the keys which your brother held […] 1908, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, Norton, published 2005, page 1330
3. A stamp or seal used to make an impression.
4. An impression on the mind, imagination etc.
   Such admonitions, in the English of the Authorized Version, left an indelible impress on imaginations nurtured on the Bible […] 2007, John Burrow, A History of Histories, Penguin, published 2009, page 187
5. Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp.
   As he himself [Sir Nigel Gresley] would doubtless have wished, he died in harness; only a few weeks previously he had been present at the first public view of his latest design, the Bantam Cock, which, like most of his products, bore all over it the impress of his personality. 1941 June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practive and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 260
6. A heraldic device; an impresa.
   It commonly occurred that Knights who , on entering the Lists , wished to conceal their identity , would assume a Device with an allusive Motto , which was designated an IMPRESS 1869, John Edwin Cussans, Handbook of Heraldry
7. The act of impressing, or taking by force for the public service; compulsion to serve; also, that which is impressed.