Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.]