Impress \Im"press\, n.; pl. Impresses.
   1. The act of impressing or making.
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   2. A mark made by pressure; an indentation; imprint; the
      image or figure of anything, formed by pressure or as if
      by pressure; result produced by pressure or influence.
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            The impresses of the insides of these shells.
                                                  --Woodward.
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            This weak impress of love is as a figure
            Trenched in ice.                      --Shak.
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   3. Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp. --South.
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   4. A device. See Impresa. --Cussans.
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            To describe . . . emblazoned shields,
            Impresses quaint.                     --Milton.
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   5. [See Imprest, Press to force into service.] The act of
      impressing, or taking by force for the public service;
      compulsion to serve; also, that which is impressed.
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            Why such impress of shipwrights?      --Shak.
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   Impress gang, a party of men, with an officer, employed to
      impress seamen for ships of war; a press gang.

   Impress money, a sum of money paid, immediately upon their
      entering service, to men who have been impressed.
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