Word.ws English Dictionary

imprest

/ɪmˈpɹɛst/

imprest is the simple past and past participle of impress.

Meaning of impress

Verb

impress (third-person singular simple present impresses, present participle impressing, simple past and past participle impressed)

  1. (transitive) To affect (someone) strongly and often favourably; to inspire admiration from (someone).
    • You impressed me with your command of Urdu.
    1. (intransitive, transitive) To make an impression; to be impressive; to arouse interest or favor.
      • Henderson impressed in his first game as captain.
  2. (transitive) To mark or stamp (something) using pressure; to apply (something) using pressure.
    • We impressed our footprints in the wet cement.
    Synonyms:
    press
    1. (transitive) To produce (a mark, stamp, image, etc.); to imprint (a mark or figure upon something).
      • He impressed his signature into the wax.
    2. (figuratively, intransitive, reflexive, transitive) To produce a vivid impression of (something); to convince someone of one's nature.
      • That first view of the Eiger impressed itself on my mind.
    3. (figuratively, transitive) To fix deeply in the mind; to present forcibly to the attention, etc.; to cause someone to understand and accept something.
      • You have to impress the new vocabulary into your mind.

See all 17 meanings of impress

Noun

UK/ˈɪmpɹɛst/

imprest (plural imprests)

  1. An advance of funds, especially to a government service or employee.
    • Calling on Lacon at the Cabinet Office to deliver the Circus's monthly imprest account for his inspection, he had been astonished to see Sam emerging from his private office, joking easily with Lacon and Saul Enderby of the Foreign Office.1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 240

Verb

UK/ˈɪmpɹɛst/

imprest (third-person singular simple present imprests, present participle impresting, simple past and past participle imprested)

  1. To advance funds on loan.
    • February 23 1780, Edmund Burke, Establism Bill
      it shall not be lawful to imprest or issue to the paymaster general of his majesty's land forces

Forms of imprest

Noun
pluralimprests
Verb
third-person singular presentimprests
present participleimpresting
past participleimprested
pastimprested

Origin of imprest

Prefix form of prest, perhaps after Italian imprestare, or perhaps from a misunderstanding of the phrase in prest.

Questions about imprest

What does imprest mean?
Imprest means an advance of funds, especially to a government service or employee.
What is imprest the simple past and past participle of?
Imprest is the simple past and past participle of impress.
What part of speech is imprest?
Imprest can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce imprest?
Imprest is pronounced /ɪmˈpɹɛst/ (UK).
What is the plural of imprest?
The plural of imprest is imprests.

Words near imprest in the dictionary

  1. impresstaurants
  2. impressum
  3. impressums
  4. impressure
  5. impressures
  6. imprest
  7. imprestable
  8. imprested
  9. impresting
  10. imprests
  11. impreventable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: imprest (page history and authors); impress (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “imprest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/imprest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.