IMPRESS (3)

Im″press (?), n.; pl. Impresses (�). 1. 1. The act of impressing or making.
2. 2. A mark made by pressure; an indentation; imprint; the image or figure of anything, formed by pressure or as if by pressure; result produced by pressure or influence.
The impresses of the insides of these shells. Woodward. This weak impress of love is as a figure Trenched in ice. Shak. 3. 3. Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp. South.
4. 4. A device. See Impresa. Cussans.
To describe . . . emblazoned shields, Impresses quaint. Milton. 5. 5. [[See Imprest, Press to force into service.]] The act of impressing, or taking by force for the public service; compulsion to serve; also, that which is impressed.
Why such impress of shipwrights? Shak. Impress gang, a party of men, with an officer, employed to impress seamen for ships of war; a press gang. — Impress money, a sum of money paid, immediately upon their entering service, to men who have been impressed.