Definition of imprint in English:

imprint

verb

1with object Impress or stamp (a mark or outline) on a surface.
‘tyre marks were imprinted in the snow’
- ‘His shoulder was bleeding heavily from the teeth marks that had been imprinted in his skin.’
- ‘The outline of my hand is imprinted in red on her face.’
- ‘Now she trod upon the dirt, imprinting her mark into the damp mud and fragments of brown snow, snow which all too often enticed her forwards into false light.’
- ‘The spiky heals were imprinted in the ground and the toe part was facing Ginger.’
- ‘The curious creatures wander into the tunnel and leave their footmarks imprinted in the clay, alerting staff to their presence.’
- ‘There were many old horse prints and wagon tracks imprinted in the packed snow, but what concerned Kalif were the many footprints, fresh footprints, that littered the newly-fallen powder.’
- ‘He told the jury the bloodstained footprints found in the hall had a distinctive zig-zag pattern that was also found imprinted in soft soil where the killer escaped through the back garden.’
- ‘The easiest way to stamp concrete is to imprint texture only.’
- ‘Daniels invented concrete stamps that can imprint curving border patterns in concrete.’
- ‘The surface is unevenly imprinted with finger marks, and it has sprouted a pair of copper hoops.’
- ‘Worse, though, is the danger posed by the wheel-tracks left imprinted in the wet sand.’
- ‘Decorated in a traditional Tuscan style, several of the inner walls and ceilings are frescoed in pastoral scenes, and imprinted in the stone fireplace is a hand-carved rendition of the Last Supper.’
- ‘But, as she shuffled her feet in the leaves, her sharp gray eyes caught sight of something imprinted in the frozen ground.’
- ‘For one thing, the mud is imprinted with wavy bumps, or corrugations, the marks left by the water at high tide.’
- ‘His slippers were imprinted with his toes and heels.’
- ‘Inside the brood nest and each super box are 9 or 10 frames for comb-containing foundation, thin sheets of beeswax or plastic that are imprinted with a honeycomb pattern.’
- ‘Medals will be imprinted with the F - 117 Nighthawk, this year's featured aircraft.’
- ‘The wax on the envelope was imprinted with the unmistakable Papal Seal.’
- ‘They wore chain-mail armor, complete with steel knee guards and spears, and on their heads, they wore helmets imprinted with a foreign symbol I had never seen before.’
- ‘The ammunition lot number is imprinted (stamped without ink) on the outside of the right tuck flap of the 50-round box.’
stamp, punch, print, impress, mark, engrave, deboss, etch
View synonyms
1. 1.1Make an impression or mark on.
  ‘clothes imprinted with the logos of sports teams’
  ‘Some are imprinted with candy-colored portraits of Che Guevara rendered in a 1960's, retro Cuban poster style.’
  ‘Tablets, which typically contain from 50-150 mg. of active drug, are usually imprinted with a popular icon such as the Nike swoosh or Motorola symbol.’
  ‘Many of the firefighters at the June 8 rally wore bright yellow t-shirts that were imprinted with ‘Firefighters for Fair Play.’’
  ‘Again, the priests didn't believe him, but when he showed them the roses, they all saw that his blanket had been imprinted with the image of Guadalupe.’
  ‘They were imprinted with pictures of little penguins.’
  ‘It was covered with a green comforter and it was imprinted with daisies of a darker shade of green.’
  ‘The shroud is imprinted with the image of a naked man who bears the marks of whipping and crucifixion.’
  ‘Depending on quantity ordered, these goggles can be imprinted with the command logo or name free of charge.’
  ‘Others got tattooed in their youth and later regretted being imprinted with a flaming death head or a Flying V guitar.’
  ‘What if each one were imprinted with the name of a member who had passed away the year before?’
  ‘From coffins emblazoned with the Rangers crest, to maroon Hearts prams, to toilet rolls and cigarettes imprinted with club logos, clubs are having to turn down dozens of products as companies try to cash in on the loyalty of football fans.’
  ‘These cards can be stowed in small maroon folders courtesy of American Girl Place, imprinted with the phrase ‘Pocket full of wishes.’’
  ‘The original hybrid, Clematis ‘Jackmanii’, is still incredibly popular after almost 150 years, with its lovely deep purple flowers imprinted with a cross.’
  ‘The event started in the Orchard Room with tea and biscuits, each imprinted with the Prince's crest, and was followed by a tour of the house's magnificent gardens - slightly dampened by a two hour downpour.’
  ‘She appears as jewellery and figurines, dishes are dried with tea-towels imprinted with her portrait, there are Diana sculptures, lingerie and ribbons and her name grows in rose gardens.’
  ‘Two men from Cleveland have been charged with illegally selling T-shirts imprinted with the Iowa State University logo.’
  ‘He was so bold as to have his business card imprinted with the single modifier ‘Expert.’’
  ‘The invitation came in a bottle with a wrapper on which was imprinted in bold letters: ‘Poison’.’
  ‘Two phrases - ‘Made in USA’ and ‘The user assumes responsibility for injury resulting from negligence’ were imprinted in the plastic.’
  ‘The only difference in the AMP elevator was that the letters ‘AMP’ were imprinted in a repeating pattern across the top of the rail on the inside.’
2. 1.2Fix (an idea) firmly in someone's mind.
  ‘he'd always have this ghastly image imprinted on his mind’
  ‘Only constant repetition will succeed in imprinting an idea on the memory of a crowd.’
  ‘The picture of the murder scene was firmly imprinted in her mind.’
  ‘Now that I'm a parent, I have to confront the fact that what I do not hide from my daughter in her first few years will imprint itself on her mind in unpredictable ways.’
  ‘For me, that detour came more than 20 years ago - and the date, Jan. 5, 1982, is imprinted permanently in my mind.’
  ‘However, the image was clearly imprinted inside his mind.’
  ‘They hope to make their extraordinary acts of romantic courtship a moment indelibly imprinted on the minds of their lovers.’
  ‘Her image was imprinted very clearly in his mind.’
  ‘Since this was our only formal meeting, the event is indelibly imprinted in my memory.’
  ‘Every battle he had ever entered was forever imprinted in his mind.’
  ‘However, the image was clearly imprinted inside his mind.’
  ‘Henceforth an image of revolutionary upheaval would be deeply imprinted on France's collective memory.’
  ‘The Dante he recited in Auschwitz was imprinted in his memory during his schooldays in Turin.’
  ‘Those sights and sounds that were imprinted in me as a child began to surface.’
  ‘I'm sure that that number is indelibly imprinted in his brain.’
  ‘The contrast between his eyes, in which all hope has been extinguished, and those of his captors, who looked like their next stop would be a movie or a coffee, is imprinted in my memory.’
  ‘The words were still imprinted in my brain, something I always believed I could forget but never could.’
  ‘The layout of the maze was imprinted in my head and I knew if I needed to, that could be used to my advantage.’
  ‘Others have acknowledged that the Ulster experience is indelibly imprinted in the artist's psyche.’
  ‘The image of her gliding effortlessly towards us in slow motion will forever be imprinted in my memory.’
  ‘I just want him to have the same image imprinted in his memory that I have in mine.’
  fix, establish, stick, lodge, implant, embed
  View synonyms
2imprint onZoology
no object (of a young animal) come to recognize (another animal, person, or thing) as a parent or other object of habitual trust.
‘the bird thought I was its mother and imprinted on me’
‘goslings will imprint themselves on inanimate objects such as a cardboard box’
- ‘In contrast to cuckoos, both male and female indigobirds imprint on their hosts.’
- ‘In the next generation, her daughter (a bird that was not knowingly observed in the field) is genetically an indigobird but imprints on her Melba Finch foster parents and learns their songs.’
- ‘Once the chick has imprinted on the initial object, hopefully the mother, it will no longer imprint on other objects.’
- ‘Biologists are now trying to get birds to imprint on boats and airplanes, so they can be taught to migrate.’
- ‘All the geese had been hatched under human watch and encouraged to imprint on the French trainer in a yellow vest.’

noun

1A mark or outline made by pressing something on to a softer substance.
‘he made imprints of the keys in bars of soap’
- ‘A red imprint marked my waist where my stockings' elastic had pressed.’
- ‘She's leaning there, supported by the banister, swaying slightly, keys clutched leaving imprints in her right hand.’
- ‘There were recent skid marks beneath the snow and frozen tire imprints in the ice, which coincided with the man's story.’
- ‘Daniel examined the seal, not at all surprised to see the faint imprint of the historian's mark in the wax.’
- ‘An imprint in the dirt and scuff marks on her boots proved this, and they said the boots had helped her cling to the fence.’
- ‘There are tread marks leading up to where the imprints are, so I follow them.’
- ‘His grey polyester slacks have white diamond shape imprints from leaning against the dusty fence.’
- ‘His feet had already left deep imprints in the thick red carpet and the suit collar was driving him to distraction.’
- ‘Their webbed feet made small imprints on the sand.’
- ‘One arm clutched her towel while the other held her clothes bundled together at her side, the soft steps of her feet leaving damp imprints on the brown carpet.’
- ‘More bruises covered her thighs, in the shape of fingers and whole hands, perfect imprints on her once-perfect skin.’
- ‘I could feel her nails leaving imprints on my palm.’
- ‘Still flushed with anger, I rose from the bench, placing my hands flat against the table and so hard that I was sure I was leaving imprints on the wooden surface.’
- ‘There was an imprint in the dirt there, as if someone had been sleeping there for years.’
- ‘Alice discovers the remarkable detail that these imprints reveal about the people and about the strange prehistoric animals that were living on the coast 5,000 years ago.’
- ‘But last year an imprint of his address was scientifically detected on one of the envelopes and he was finally caught.’
- ‘Traditional seals derive their authenticity from the imprint of the sealer; the challenge for electronic commerce is to devise a similar system to validate digital information.’
- ‘Charlie followed the shallow imprints in the ground, until the tracks came to a flat rock.’
- ‘Biting his earlobe as had little effect, other than the imprint of the teeth on his skin.’
- ‘When you think about forensic evidence, you probably imagine detectives looking for droplets of blood, traces of fingerprints or imprints of shoes.’
impression, print, mark, indentation
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1. 1.1A lasting effect.
  ‘years in the colonies had left their imprint’
  ‘When this is compounded over time, the effect is a lasting imprint in the mind of the child - so much so that the child carries the experience with them into their adult life with disastrous results.’
  ‘The imprints of these influences will not all be equally visible in adulthood and hence may be overlooked by studies that have information about individuals only in middle and old age.’
  ‘The country will forever be poorer without Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, but their imprint is so strong that we can follow the path of their leadership, even when they've moved on.’
  ‘They believe that the imprint of God's creative genius is upon every human being.’
  ‘His imprint on us can emerge and shine brightly for all to see.’
  ‘But wind farms leave imprints on the environment, too, says the University of Calgary professor.’
  ‘The floodgates of knowledge unlocked in Muslim Spain left their lasting imprints on every conceivable domain of the Western society.’
  ‘However, all stages left their indelible imprints in the vast reservoir of human knowledge and each stage was symbiotically linked to the other, in the sense that each left valuable resources for the next.’
  ‘The time I spent with James has left an indelible imprint on my mind.’
  ‘His spell at Cambridge left an indelible imprint on the young Howard.’
  ‘I know teachers with the extraordinary power to make a lasting imprint on a young child's life.’
  ‘They can either follow the president's lead or seek to put their imprint on presidential policies.’
  ‘We carry the imprint of this experience for life, even into our dying.’
  ‘The area long ago began to be gentrified, but it still bears the imprint of its recent history in somewhat lower house prices than the adjacent suburb of Nightcliff proper.’
  ‘It will take some years for the Government to address apartheid's imprint of geographic, institutional and social separation.’
  ‘The bicycle is an interesting example of a technology, which in its popularity last century began to affect the architecture of the landscape, before the automobile left its indelible imprint.’
  ‘Each will leave a unique and lasting imprint on the historically Black institutions they've headed.’
  ‘As he points out, imagination is not just the passive faculty that retains the imprint left by sensation.’
  ‘Even more significant were the indelible imprints left on an emboldened and much mightier financial sector.’
  ‘His poetics of protest that projects the writer as a revolutionary bears the unmistakable imprint of Marxist thought.’
  impact, lasting effect, influence, impression
  View synonyms
2A printer's or publisher's name, address, and other details in a book or other publication.
- ‘These title pages generally provide the title of the play, the name of the dramatist, and the printer's device and imprint.’
- ‘So English and Canadian readers will get books that are identical except for the imprint and copyright pages.’
- ‘One day, quite by chance, I happened to look at the imprint of my copy and noticed it was a First Edition.’
- ‘Rather like looking at introductions and conclusions, and imprints, and bibliographies, and so on… I'd be very suspicious of any piece of info which appeared to exist in a vacuum.’
1. 2.1A brand name under which books are published, typically the name of a former publishing house that is now part of a larger group.
  ‘the group will continue to market its products through its established imprints’
  ‘Random House trade imprints now publish lead titles as print books and e-books simultaneously.’
  ‘Major publishing houses responded to this trend by establishing imprints, such as DC's Vertigo, that publishes comics aimed at a mature audience.’
  ‘Despite the good news, some authors worry about the message they are sending by publishing under imprints aimed at specific communities.’
  ‘To redress this balance, an Oxford-based publishing firm has launched Transita, a new imprint devoted exclusively to books by and about older women.’
  ‘She has also had books published under the Kensington and St. Martin's paperback imprints.’
  ‘So I have what is known as an imprint, it's an arm of a publishing house.’
  ‘[She's] working on two books to be published by Atria, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.’
  ‘The publication in Paris was by a bookseller, Sylvia Beach, under the imprint Shakespeare & Co, who had no experience of publishing at all, let alone so substantial and complex a work.’
  ‘The new name to watch in Scottish publishing is Birlinn, which has been busy buying up imprints (notably Polygon) and is clearly intent on making its own mark as a publishing house of national importance.’
  ‘Publishers Time-Warner, Random House, and HarperCollins all have religious imprints.’
  ‘For example, Donna Hill is the lead author for Kensington Publishing's Dafina, a new imprint for romance novels.’
  ‘And in a very imaginative marketing ploy, it was published simultaneously in both adult and children's imprints.’
  ‘It is published by Highdown, an imprint of Raceform Ltd, Compton, Newbury and is priced at £17.99stg.’
  ‘It was published by The Lyons Press, an imprint of The Globe Pequot Press’
  ‘His new book with M.F. Husain, Kerala: God's Own Country, has just been published by Books Today, an imprint of India Today.’
  ‘The problem with today's publishing is that behind all the imprints we see on spines, most books are the product of just four multinational media conglomerates.’
  ‘And, most significant of all, he tells us that ‘several major imprints are struggling.'’
  ‘Penguin imprints include Michael Joseph, Allen Lane, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, and a good few more.’
  ‘Even if they're no longer independent companies, they still exist as imprints.’
  ‘She has also had books published under the Kensington and St. Martin's paperback imprints.’

Origin

Late Middle English (originally as emprint): from Old French empreinter, based on Latin imprimere, from in- ‘into’ + premere ‘to press’.

Pronunciation

imprint

/ɪmˈprɪnt/

Word of the Day

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