impress

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: im‧press

verb

• enPR: ĭmprĕsʹ, IPA ^(key): /ɪmˈprɛs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

noun

• enPR: ĭmʹprĕs, IPA ^(key): /ˈɪmprɛs/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Verb

Plain form impress

Third-person singular impresses

Past tense impressed

Past participle impressed

Present participle impressing

1. (transitive) If you impress someone, you make them think good things about you.

   I'm really impressed by him, particularly his speaking style.

   The photograph had impressed her so deeply that she started taking photography lessons.

2. (transitive) If you impress something on someone, you stress how important it is.

   The problems impressed upon me the wisdom of getting expert advice before starting any project.

3. (transitive) If you impress some marks into something, you make the marks by pushing on it.

   Scientists found objects that make interesting marks when impressed into the surface of the wet earth.

Synonyms

• influence
• stress
• affect
• emphasize
• highlight

Related words

• impressed
• unimpressed
• unimpressive
• impressive
• impressively
• impression
• impressionable