Emily Dickinson Lexicon

IM-POR-TUN'ED, pp.

Requested with urgency.

IM-POR-TUNE'LY, adv.

1. With urgent solicitation; incessantly; continually; troblesomely. [Obs.] Spenser.
2. Unseasonably; improperly. [Obs.] Sanderson.

IM-POR-TUN'ER, n.

One who urges with earnestness.

IM-POR-TUN'ING, ppr.

Soliciting with urgency.

IM-POR-TU'NI-TY, n. [Fr. importunité; L. importunitas.]

Pressing solicitation; urgent request; application for a claim or favor, which is urged with troublesome frequency or pertinacity. Men are sometimes overcome by the importunity of their wives or children.

IM-PORT'U-OUS, a. [L. importuosus; in and portus.]

Without a port, haven, or harbor.

IM-POS'A-BLE, a.

That may be imposed or laid on. Hammond.

IM-POS'A-BLE-NESS, n.

State of being imposable.

IM-POSE', n. [s as z.]

Command; injunction. [Not used.] Shak.

IM-POSE', v.t. [s as z. Fr. imposer; L. impositum, from impono; in and pono, to put. Pono, as written, belongs to Class Bn; and posui, positum, to Class Bs or Bd. The latter coincides with Eng. put. But n and s may be convertible.]

1. To lay on; to set on; to lay on, as a burden, tax, toll, duty or penalty. The legislature imposes taxes for the support of government; toll is imposed on passengers to maintain roads, and penalties are imposed on those who violate the laws. God imposes no burdens on men which they are unable to bear. On impious realms and barb'rous kings impose / Thy plagues. Pope.
2. To place over by authority or by force. The Romans often imposed rapacious governors on their colonies and conquered countries.
3. To lay on, as a command; to enjoin, as a duty. Thou on the deep imposest nobler laws. Waller. Impose but your commands. Dryden.
4. To fix on; to impute. [Little used.] Brown.
5. To lay on, as hands in the ceremony of ordination, or of confirmation.
6. To obtrude fallaciously. Our poet thinks not fit / T' impose upon you what he writes for wit. Dryden.
7. Among printers, to put the pages on the stone and fit on the chase, and thus prepare the form for the press. To impose on, to deceive; to mislead by a trick or false pretense; vulgarly, to put upon. We are liable to be imposed on by others, and sometimes we impose on ourselves.

IM-POS'ED, pp.

Laid on, as a tax, burden, duty or penalty; enjoined. Imposed on, deceived.

IM-POSE'MENT, n.

Imposition. [Bad.] Moore.

IM-POS'ER, n.

One who lays on; one who enjoins. The imposers of these oaths might repent. Walton.

IM-POS'ING, ppr.

1. Laying on; enjoining; deceiving.
2. adj. Commanding; adapted to impress forcibly; as, an imposing air or manner. Large and imposing edifices, imbosomed in the groves of some rich valley. Bishop Hobart.

IM-POS'ING-LY, adv.

By imposition.

IM-POS'ING-STONE, n.

Among printers, the stone on which the pages or columns of types are imposed or made into forms.

IM-PO-SI'TION, n. [s as z. Fr. from L. impositio. see Impose.]

1. In a general sense, the act of laying on.
2. The act of laying on hands in the ceremony of ordination, when the bishop in the episcopal church, and the ministers in congregational churches, place their hands on the head of the person whom they are ordaining, while one prays for a blessing on his labors. The same ceremony is used in other cases.
3. The act of setting on or affixing to; as, the imposition of names. Boyle.
4. That which is imposed; a tax, toll, duty or excise laid by authority. Tyrants oppress their subjects with grievous impositions.
5. Injunction, as of a law or duty. Milton.
6. Constraint; oppression; burden. Let it not be made, contrary to its own nature, the occasion of strife, a narrow spirit, and unreasonable impositions on the mind and practice. Watts.
7. Deception; imposture. Being acquainted with his hand, I had no reason to suspect an imposition. Smollett.
8. A supernumerary exercise enjoined on students as a punishment. [“Every pecuniary mulet whatever on young men in statu pupillari, should be abolished; the proper punishment is employing their minds in some useful imposition.” Enormous Expense of Education in Cambridge. “Literary tasks called impositions, or frequent compulsive attendances on tedious and unimproving exercises in a college hall.” T.Warton's Minor Poems of Milton, p. 422. – E.H.B.]

IM-POS-SI-BIL'I-TY, n. [from impossible.]

1. That which can not be; the state of being not possible to exist. That a thing should be and not be at the same time, is an impossibility.
2. Impracticability; the state or quality of being not feasible or possible to be done. That a man by his own strength should lift a ship of the line, is to him an impossibility, as the means are inadequate to the end. [See Impossible.]

IM-POS'SI-BLE, a. [Fr. from L. impossibilis; in and possibilis, from possum, to be able.]

1. That can not be. It is impossible that two and two should make five, or that a circle and a square should be the same thing, or that a thing should be and not be at the same time.
2. Impracticable; not feasible; that can not be done. With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. Matth. xix. Without faith it is impossible to please God. Heb. xi. There are two kinds of impossibilities; physical and moral. That is a physical impossibility, which is contrary to the law of nature. A thing is said to be morally impossible, when in itself it is possible, but attended with difficulties or circumstances which give it the appearance of being impossible. [See Possible, Practicable and Impracticable.] Encyc.

IM'POST, n. [Sp. and It. imposta; Fr. impôt, for impost; L. impositum, impono.]

1. Any tax or tribute imposed by authority; particularly, a duty or tax laid by government on goods imported, and paid or secured by the importer at the time of importation. Imposts are also called customs.
2. In architecture, that part of a pillar in vaults and arches, on which the weight of the building rests; or the capital of a pillar or cornice which crowns the pier and supports the first stone or part of an arch. Ainsworth. Ash.

IM-POS'THU-MATE, v.i. [impos'tumate. See Imposthume.]

To form an abscess; to gather; to collect pus or purulent matter in any part of an animal body. Arbuthnot.

IM-POS'THU-MATE, v.t.

To affect with an imposthume or abscess.

IM-POS'THU-MA-TED, pp.

Affected with an imposthume.

IM-POS'THU-MA-TING, ppr.

Forming into an abscess.

IM-POS-THU-MA'TION, n.

The act of forming an abscess; also, an abscess; an imposthume. Coxe. Bacon.