impose
Meanings
- To physically lay or place (something) on another thing; to deposit, to put, to set.
- To lay or place (one's hands) on someone as a blessing, during rites of confirmation, ordination, etc.
- 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.
- To apply, enforce, or establish (something, often regarded as burdensome as a restriction or tax: see verb sense 1.2.2) with authority.
- To place or put (something chiefly immaterial, especially something regarded as burdensome as a duty, an encumbrance, a penalty, etc.) on another thing or on someone; to inflict, to repose; also, to place or put (on someone a chiefly immaterial thing, especially something regarded as burdensome).
- To force or put (a thing) on someone or something by deceit or stealth; to foist, to obtrude.
- To subject (a student) to imposition (“a task inflicted as punishment”).
- To appoint (someone) to be in authority or command over other people.
- To accuse someone of (a crime, or a sin or other wrongdoing); to charge, to impute.
- To put (a conclusion or end) to something definitively.
- Chiefly followed by on or upon.
- To affect authoritatively or forcefully; to influence strongly.
- An act of placing or putting on something chiefly immaterial, especially something regarded as burdensome as a duty, a task, etc.; an imposition.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
The verb is derived from Late Middle English imposen (“to place, set; to impose (a duty, etc.)”), borrowed from Middle French imposer, and Old French emposer, enposer (“to impose (a duty, tax, etc.)”) (modern French imposer), from im-, em- (variants of en- (prefix meaning ‘in, into’)) + poser (“to place, put”), modelled after: * Latin impōnere (“to place or set (something) on; (figurative) to impose (a duty, tax, etc.)”), from im- (variant of in- (prefix meaning ‘on, upon’)) + pōnō (“to place, put; etc.”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂pó, *h₂epó (“away; off”) + *tḱey- (“to cultivate; to live; to settle”)); and * Latin impositus (“established; put upon, imposed”), the perfect passive participle of impōnō: see above. The noun is derived from the verb.