imprint

Everyday

1. An imprint is a mark or shape pressed into a surface, like a footprint in mud. tree →
2. An imprint is a lasting effect that something leaves on a person or a place. tree →
3. To imprint something is to press or print a mark onto it. tree →
4. To imprint something on your mind is to fix it firmly in your memory. tree →
5. (books) A publisher's imprint is the brand name it puts on a book. tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons fossils are often imprints of leaves, shells or footprints in rock. In stories an experience «leaves its imprint» on someone. In everyday life a coin or a stamp can be imprinted with a design. In biology, a young animal can imprint on its mother (see «imprinting»). Phrases: «leave an imprint», «imprinted on my memory», «an imprint of».

Examples

• The dinosaur left an imprint of its foot in the mud. tree →
• The fossil is the imprint of a fern. tree →
• The face of the queen is imprinted on the coin. tree →
• That holiday left a happy imprint on all of us. tree →
• The phone number is imprinted on my mind. tree →
• Her hand left an imprint in the wet clay. tree →
• This book is published under a children's imprint. tree →
• The proprietor of the house stood bare-headed, and respectfully imprinted a kiss on the hand of the old woman. tree →

Note

Stress differs: noun «IM-print», verb «im-PRINT». Past form «imprinted». Countable noun. Similar to «print» and «impression».

In Jewish tradition

In Leviticus it means to tattoo or mark the skin. In the Sefer Yetzirah it means a stamp or trace left by God.

Interpretation. Tradition reads the ban on marks as forbidding pagan mourning tattoos, since the body belongs to God. The Sefer Yetzirah's view is that all things carry God's mark.

Examples

• Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor imprint any marks upon you: I am the LORD. (Torah LEV.19.28, JPS 1917) tree →
• or does exist outside of Himself ; His substance is the foundation of all, and all things bear His imprint and are symbols of His intelligence." (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →
• Yet He is not only that form; for nothing can [p. 9] or does exist outside of Himself; His substance is the foundation of all, and all things bear His imprint and are symbols of His intelligence." (Sefer Yetzirah, Westcott 1893) tree →

Note

Stress differs: noun «IM-print», verb «im-PRINT». Past form «imprinted». Countable noun. Similar to «print» and «impression».