Noun

(en noun)

(obsolete) A young shoot of a plant, tree etc.

* Sir Orfeo , 69:

Þai sett hem doun al þre / Vnder a fair ympe-tre.

(obsolete) A scion, offspring; a child.

* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene I.3:

And thou most dreaded impe of highest Ioue'', / Faire ''Venus sonne, [...] come to mine ayde [...].

* Fairfax

The tender imp was weaned.

A young or inferior devil; a malevolent supernatural creature, similar to a demon but smaller and less powerful.

* Beattie

to mingle in the clamorous fray of squabbling imps

A mischievous child.

* 1908 ,

I've left my young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and troublesome set of young imps doesn't exist...

(UK, dialect, obsolete) Something added to, or united with, another, to lengthen it out or repair it, such as an addition to a beehive; a feather inserted in a broken wing of a bird; or a length of twisted hair in a fishing line.

Noun

(en noun)

A loyal servant of another, usually a more powerful being.

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=Kevin Heng

, title= Why Does Nature Form Exoplanets Easily? , volume=101, issue=3, page=184, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=In the past two years, NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has located nearly 3,000 exoplanet candidates ranging from sub-Earth-sized minions to gas giants that dwarf our own Jupiter.}}

A sycophantic follower.

(obsolete) A loved one; one highly esteemed and favoured.

* Sylvester

God's disciple and his dearest minion

* William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens , IV-III

Is this the Athenian minion whom the world / Voiced so regardfully?

(obsolete) An ancient form of ordnance with a calibre of about three inches.

(Beaumont and Fletcher)

(typography, uncountable) A size of type smaller than brevier but larger than nonpareil, roughly equivalent to 7pt.

(Burton)