imprint

Noun

imprint (plural imprints)

1. An impression; the mark left behind by printing something or by pressing on something, or the figurative counterpart of such a mark.
   • Their footsteps left an imprint in the sand.
   • The packaging requires an imprint on three of its sides.
2. The name and details of a publisher or printer, as printed in a book etc.; (metonymic) the publisher, publishing house, or printer; their brand, or one of their subbrands.
   • Near-synonyms: colophon, imprimatur
   • Each of the Big Five publishers has many imprints; for example, the imprints of Penguin Random House include Crown, DK, and Knopf Doubleday.

   Synonyms:

   colophon, imprimatur

3. A distinctive marking, symbol, or logo.
   • Near-synonyms: imprimatur, hallmark
   • The shirts bore the company imprint on the right sleeve.

   Synonyms:

   imprimatur, hallmark

Verb

IPA/ɪmˈpɹɪnt/

imprint (third-person singular simple present imprints, present participle imprinting, simple past and past participle imprinted)

1. To leave a print, impression, image, etc.
   • For a fee, they can imprint the envelopes with a monogram.
   • For though a Child quickly aſſent to this Propoſition, That an Apple is not Fire; when, by familiar Acquaintance, he has got the Idea's of thoſe two different things diſtinctly imprinted on his Mind, and has learnt that the names Apple and Fire ſtand for them; yet it will be ſome years after...1689 (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “No Innate Principles in the Mind”, in An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding. […], London: […] Eliz[abeth] Holt, for Thomas Basset, […], →OCLC, book I, §...
2. To learn something indelibly at a particular stage of life, such as who one's parents are.
   • Baby birds are known for a propensity to imprint; they tend to imprint on whichever creatures they perceive to be their parents — including humans doing wildlife rescue!
   • That is, by way of this initial imprinting the young animal becomes a socialized member of its species. Animals misimprinted to other species show a variety of abnormal social behaviors as adults.1977, Dorothy Rogers, Issues in child psychology, page 62
3. To mark a gene as being from a particular parent so that only one of the two copies of the gene is expressed.