Word Direct Answers

What does "impose" mean?

Impose: To lay as a charge, burden, tax, duty, obligation, command, penalty, etc.; to enjoin; to levy; to inflict; as, to impose a toll or tribute. What fates impose, that men must needs abide. Shak. Death is the penalty imposed. Milton. Thou on the deep imposest nobler laws. Waller.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Eccl.) To lay on, as the hands, in the religious rites of confirmation and ordination.
  2. 3.(Print.) To arrange in proper order on a table of stone or metal and lock up in a chase for printing; -- said of columns or pages of type, forms, etc.
  3. 4.To practice trick or deception. To impose on or upon, to pass or put a trick on; to delude. "He imposes on himself, and mistakes words for things." Locke.
  4. 5.A command; injunction. [Obs.] Shak.

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