How to use impose in a sentence
40 example sentences · verb, noun
Impose means to physically lay or place (something) on another thing; to deposit, to put, to set. Example: “Congress imposed new tariffs.”
Examples of impose by meaning
verbTo apply, enforce, or establish (something, often regarded as burdensome as a restriction or tax: see verb sense 1.2.2)...
- Congress imposed new tariffs.
- Sanctions were imposed on the country that had made an unprovoked attack on its neighbour.
verbTo place or put (something chiefly immaterial, especially something regarded as burdensome as a duty, an encumbrance, a...
- Social relations impose courtesy.
- And if the people of other countries don't want communism, we don't want to see it imposed upon them against their will.1948 October 27 (date delivered), Harry S. Truman, “Address at Mechanics Hall in Boston”, in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United...
- Detailed records are kept of the strains imposed on the bridge by the violent gales that frequently sweep the firth, and a self-recording wind gauge is fixed on the top of the tower.1950 March, H. A. Vallance, “On Foot Across the Forth Bridge”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 149
verbTo encroach or intrude, especially in a manner regarded as unfair or unwarranted; to presume, to take advantage of...
- I don’t wish to impose upon you.
- Despite it having the distinction of being the earliest Cluniac monastery in Great Britain, petitions to prevent the Brighton Lewes & Hastings Railway from imposing on its site with its Lewes line failed.2022 January 12, Joseph Brennan, “Castles: Ruined and Redeemed by Rail”, in Rail, number 948, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media...
More sentences with impose
- The sense ‘state or process of bearing fruit’ has become imposed on fruition as the 20c. proceeded.From the entry become
- The judge imposed on the thief a sentence of fifteen strokes with the rod.From the entry rod
- The city has been reported calm after a curfew was imposed.From the entry curfew
- Backed by public outrage, the prosecution requested the death penalty to be imposed on the murderer.From the entry prosecution
- Everyone was surprised by the severeness of the sentence the judge imposed.From the entry severeness
- Lawyers are self-regulating through the bar association, which sets standards and imposes penalties.From the entry self-regulating
- The admin imposed a soft ban on the user.From the entry soft
- Don't take it personally if your editor imposes the Oxford comma — it's merely an aspect of house style.From the entry house style
- The League was hampered by the U.S.'s refusal to join and its member states' unwillingness to impose sanctions on foreign countries.From the entry league
- The administration threatened to impose punitive tariffs of 25% on all steel imports in response to the trade dispute.From the entry punitive tariff
- Beijing imposed punitive sanctions on Canada.From the entry punitive
- The mother of the murdered man spoke directly to the man who took away her son, then addressed the judge, whom she trusted would impose the maximum sentence.From the entry take away
- Only then could he impose matching tariffs on goods from that foreign country.2026 February 27, Devin Humphreys, “Mansion Markets: Re-Evaluating the Treatment of Customs Unions in Antidumping Cases”, in Mercer Law…. From the entry Exampleland
- The fiercely competitive pressures of shareholder capitalism will also impose a remorseless logic of their own.2026 April 18, John Thornhill, “Lunch with the FT: Dario Amodei”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd.…. From the entry shareholder capitalism
- It attempted to impose quotas and move the industry toward something more sustainable.2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian. From the entry flounce
- This proved difficult, so the IWC simply gave up and imposed a moratorium on whaling altogether.2025 September 11, Kate Marvel, “‘We’ve done it before’: how not to lose hope in the fight against ecological disaster”, in The Guardian. From the entry flounce
- It adapitates in response to life's challenges and changes, such as those imposed by a global pandemic.2024 April 4, Jonas Enge, New You Post-Pandemic? How Global Crises Change Our Personal Traits, archived from the original on 20 May 2024. From the entry adapitates
- Financial capital and multinational companies impose an austeritarian turn (austerity and authoritarianism).2021, Gustave Massiah, “The Paris Commune, an Alterglobalism”, in Socialism and Democracy, volume 35, number 1, →DOI, page 179. From the entry austeritarian
- A global anthropopause period was imposed through the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.2020 November 19, Christos S Zerefos, Stavros Solomos, John Kapsomenakis, Anastasia Poupkou, Lida Dimitriadou, Iliana D Polychroni, Pavlos…. From the entry anthropopause
- The superior rulemaker's only recourse is to impose sanctions against the inferior rulemaker.2019, Johan Lindholm, “7: CAS's normative contribution”, in The Court of Arbitration for Sport and Its Jurisprudence: An Empirical Inquiry…. From the entry rulemaker
- The burden of judgment imposed by the politics of respectability can easily colonize black minds.2017, Christopher J. Lebron, The Making of Black Lives Matter: A Brief History of an Idea, →ISBN. From the entry colonize
- The mere delegation of a performance imposes no duty on the delegate to perform.2016, Marco J. Jimenez, Contract Law: A Case and Problem Based Approach (Aspen Casebook Series), New York: Wolters Kluwer, →ISBN, page 1192. From the entry delegation
- Vowing to fight some regulations imposed by the Obama administration, Mr.2015 September 29, Matt Flegenheimer, “Jeb Bush Calls for Ending Ban on Crude Oil Exports”, in New York Times. From the entry unregulate
- A settlement could impose new restrictions on wells tapping the bolson in both states.2015 November 2, David Crowder, “El Paso’s low water rates to rise”, in El Paso Inc., retrieved 21 Nov 2015. From the entry bolson
- And it is imposed on us by the same Ngarrindjeri who themselves were once the colonised.2014, Irene Watson, Aboriginal Peoples, Colonialism and International Law: Raw Law, →ISBN. From the entry self-colonise
- Or, at the very least, demisexuality imposes more difficulty in describing my particular brand of queerness.2013, Adrienne Smith, “Cultural Fascination”, in Elesia Askenazy, Melanie Yergeau, editors, Relationships & Sexuality, page 96. From the entry demisexuality
- The programming language does not impose any restrictions on the dimensionality of the arrays.2010, Basavaraj S. Anami, Shanmukhappa A. Angadi, Sunilkumar S. Manvi, Computer Concepts and C Programming, second, →ISBN, page 139. From the entry dimensionality
- He utilizes his fight IQ to negate his opponent's advantages and impose his will.2009 June 17, Jay Bandu, “What It Takes to Be a Real Fighter Pt 3: Mental Aptitude”, in Bleacher Report. From the entry fight IQ
- With control of the river, they imposed a tax for water rights on the local Atacamenians.2004, Mary A. Hood, The Strangler Fig and Other Tales: Field Notes of a Conservationist, page 45. From the entry Atacamenian
- One exchange suggests that his practice was a convention imposed from without.2003, Nineteenth Century Prose, volume 30, page 304. From the entry motto
- Such taxes may result from stereotyping, conditioning, or imposed social roles.2002, Elena Hannah, Swani Vethamany-Globus, Linda Paul, Women in the Canadian Academic Tundra: Challenging the Chill. From the entry stereotype tax
- But in the anticar movement, it is axiomatic that the urban model should be imposed everywhere.1998 February 20, Harold Henderson, “Car Trouble”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry anticar
- Perhaps there are no real patterns, only those that we feeble-mindedly impose.1997, Ian Stewart, chapter 1, in Does God Play Dice?: The New Mathematics of Chaos, →ISBN. From the entry feeble-mindedly
Meaning of impose
- verb To physically lay or place (something) on another thing; to deposit, to put, to set.
- verb To lay or place (one's hands) on someone as a blessing, during rites of confirmation, ordination, etc.
- verb To lay (columns or pages of type, or printing plates) arranged in a proper order on the bed of a press or an imposing stone and secure them in a chase in preparation for printing.
Questions about impose in a sentence
- How do you use impose in a sentence?
- Impose is used as a verb and noun. For example: “Congress imposed new tariffs.”
- What is a short sentence with impose?
- “Congress imposed new tariffs.”
- What does impose mean?
- Impose means to physically lay or place (something) on another thing; to deposit, to put, to set.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: impose (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this page: “How to use impose in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/impose. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
