impression
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪmˈpɹɛʃən/
rhymes: -ɛʃən
Forms: form: impressions
Etymology: From Old French impression, from Latin impressio. Equivalent to impress + -ion.
Senses: examples: text: His head made an impression on the pillow.
glosses: The indentation or depression made by the pressure of one object on or into another.
examples: text: He tried to make a good impression on his parents.
text: Their empires, triumphs, conquests, and projects, have left little impression behind them, notwithstanding the attention they once attracted, and the violent convulsions which they caused in the state of the world.
ref: 1805, Henry Kett, “Conclusion”, in Elements of General Knowledge, Introductory to Useful Books in the Principal Branches of Literature and Science. […], volume I, Philadelphia, Pa.: […] [T]he Press of H. Maxwell, for F. Nichols, […], and J. A. Cummings, […], pages 387–388:
text: The stories did not seem to me to touch life. […] They left me with the impression of a well-delivered stereopticon lecture, with characters about as life-like as the shadows on the screen, and whisking on and off, at the mercy of the operator.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
text: Though most of the cases here cover European encounters with non-Europeans, it is not the intention of the book to give the impression that genocide is a function of European colonialism and imperialism alone.
ref: 2008 June 1, A. Dirk Moses, “Preface”, in Empire, Colony, Genocide: Conquest, Occupation, and Subaltern Resistance in World History, Berghahn Books, →ISBN, page x:
synonyms: take
glosses: The overall effect of something, e.g., on a person.
examples: text: I have the impression that he's already left for Paris.
glosses: A vague recalling of an event, a belief.
glosses: An impersonation, an imitation of the mannerisms of another individual.
glosses: An outward appearance.
examples: text: Publishers are paid for each ad impression their site generates.
ref: 2010, Dusty Reagan, Twitter Application Development For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 329:
glosses: A performance metric representing an instance where a post or ad is shown once.
qualifier: painting
glosses: The first coat of colour, such as the priming in house-painting etc.
topics: arts
crafts
engraving
hobbies
lifestyle
glosses: A print on paper from a wood block, metal plate, etc.
examples: text: Let us, therefore, use a little freedom, and call them Impressions; employing that word in a sense somewhat different from the usual. By the term impression, then, I mean all our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will. And impressions are distinguished from ideas, which are the less lively perceptions, of which we are conscious, when we reflect on any of those sensations or movements above mentioned.
ref: 1748, David Hume, “Of the Origin of Ideas”, in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding:
topics: human-sciences
philosophy
sciences
glosses: The vivid perception of something as it is experienced, in contrast to ideas or thoughts drawn from memory or the imagination.
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: set of copies of a publication printed at one time having the same content, layout, pagination, etc.
Derived terms: afterimpression
after-impression
artist's impression
first impression
impressionability
impressionable
impressional
impressioner
impressionism
impressionist
impressionistic
impressionless
impressive
make an impression
maternal impression
misimpression
present sense impression
reimpression
sulfur impression
sulphur impression
trial impression
under the impression
unimpression
Related terms: impress
impressive