Primary
''impressment'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904104805-00-⌔
impressment - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
impressment (countable and uncountable, plural impressments)
- The act of seizing for public use; impressing into public service, especially military service and (most often) naval service.
- ✤ Coordinate terms: conscription, draft
- ✤ owing to the immense number of our sailors, and the extent of our commerce, we were enabled by impressment and other means, to fit out and man a powerful fleet in a few weeks1
- ✤ Although it was a warm day, she seemed to think of nothing but the fire. I fancied she was jealous even of the saucepan on it; and I have reason to know that she took its impressment into the service of boiling my egg and broiling my bacon, in dudgeon […]2
- ✤ A month later the governors of six more states, meeting in conference, enigmatically urged the impressment of slaves for “the public service as may be required.”3
- ✤ […] in years when need was pressing, […] the government would order the construction of extra ships at specified points on the shores of the Black Sea and Mediterranean, and the impressment of craftsmen to do the work.4
Etymology
From impress + -ment.
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɪmˈpɹɛsmənt/
- Hyphenation: im‧press‧ment
Printed 2026-09-04.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Link to original Footnotes
1808 February 3, Hansard: ↩
1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “I am Sent Away from Home”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC: ↩
1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2004, page 833: ↩
2002, Colin Imber, chapter 8, in The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power, Palgrave Macmillan, page 294: ↩
Secondary
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