imprinting

Everyday

1. (biology) Imprinting is the way some baby animals, like ducklings and goslings, learn to follow and trust the first moving thing they see after hatching, usually their mother. tree →
2. Imprinting is the act of pressing or printing a mark or design onto something. tree →

In the lessons

In science lessons imprinting explains why ducklings line up behind their mother, and why a gosling that first sees a person may follow that person; the scientist Konrad Lorenz studied this with geese. In design lessons imprinting means printing a logo onto T-shirts or mugs. Phrases: «imprinting on», «the imprinting period».

Examples

• Ducklings follow their mother because of imprinting. tree →
• The goslings imprinted on the farmer and followed him everywhere. tree →
• Konrad Lorenz studied imprinting in geese. tree →
• Imprinting happens in the first hours after a chick hatches. tree →
• The factory is imprinting the school logo on our new sweatshirts. tree →
• Zookeepers wear puppets so the chicks do not start imprinting on people. tree →

Note

As a verb form: «The chick is imprinting on its mother». As a noun it is uncountable. Imprinting mostly happens soon after birth; it is not ordinary learning by practice.