IMPRINTING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Imprinting

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/ɪmprˈɪntɪŋ/ /ɪmprˈɪnɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Imprint v. t. (past & past part. imptrinted; pres. part. imprinting)

To impress; to mark by pressure; to indent; to stamp. "And sees his num'rous herds imprint her sands."

To stamp or mark, as letters on paper, by means of type, plates, stamps, or the like; to print the mark (figures, letters, etc., upon something). "Nature imprints upon whate'er we see, That has a heart and life in it, "Be free.""

To fix indelibly or permanently, as in the mind or memory; to impress. "Ideas of those two different things distinctly imprinted on his mind."

(Ethology) To create or acquire (a behavioral pattern) by the process of imprinting.

noun

imprinting n. (Ethology, Psychology) The learning of a behavioral pattern that occurs soon after birth or hatching in certain animals, in which a long-lasting response to an individual (such as a parent) or an object is rapidly acquired; it is particularly noted in the response of certain birds to the animal they first see after hatching, usually the parent, as in ducks who will follow the adult duck they first see.

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Etymology of 'Imprinting'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Imprinting" Quotes from Famous Books

... moment been let down from the lofty position in which its two halves were kept by an immense wooden erection, which bore an awful resemblance to a scaffold. When they got over the bridge, Reginald turned round, and, imprinting a kiss on the pale cheek of ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 341, March, 1844, Vol. 55 • Various

... ever beheld, no sound however slight caught by the ear, or anything once passing the turnstile of any of the senses, is ever let go. The eye is a perpetual camera imprinting upon the sensitive mental plates, and packing away in the brain for future use every face, every tree, every plant, flower, hill, stream, mountain, every scene upon the street, in fact, everything which comes within its range. There is a phonograph in our natures which catches, ...

— Architects of Fate - or, Steps to Success and Power • Orison Swett Marden

... cried the lover, roughly, rushing frantically towards her, and throwing his arms around her neck; and in spite of a slight struggle, he succeeded in imprinting half a dozen kisses upon her cheeks ...

— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... to a custom mentioned in one of our earlier volumes, of imprinting the form of the hand, smeared with ink, on the paper, instead of ...

— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume IX. • Robert Kerr

... embraced Felix with much tenderness, imprinting a hearty kiss on both his cheeks; and, the little ceremony ended, the company toasted the proclamation of independence with great merriment, following it up with the singing of ...

— Story-Lives of Great Musicians • Francis Jameson Rowbotham