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Impress vs Amaze - What's the difference?

impress | amaze |

In intransitive terms the difference between impress and amaze

is that impress is to make an impression, to be impressive while amaze is to undergo amazement; to be astounded.

As verbs the difference between impress and amaze

is that impress is to affect (someone) strongly and often favourably while amaze is to stupefy; to knock unconscious.

As nouns the difference between impress and amaze

is that impress is the act of impressing while amaze is amazement, astonishment.

impress

English

Verb

(es)
  • To affect (someone) strongly and often favourably.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=5 citation , passage=Mr. Campion appeared suitably impressed and she warmed to him. He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.}}
  • To make an impression, to be impressive.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=September 7, author=Phil McNulty, title=Moldova 0-5 England
    • , work=BBC Sport citation , passage=Manchester United's Tom Cleverley impressed on his first competitive start and Lampard demonstrated his continued worth at international level in a performance that was little more than a stroll once England swiftly exerted their obvious authority.}}
  • To produce a vivid impression of (something).
  • To mark or stamp (something) using pressure.
  • * Shakespeare
    • his heart, like an agate, with your print impressed
  • To produce (a mark, stamp, image, etc.); to imprint (a mark or figure upon something).
  • (figurative) To fix deeply in the mind; to present forcibly to the attention, etc.; to imprint; to inculcate.
  • * I. Watts
    • Impress the motives of persuasion upon our own hearts till we feel the force of them.
  • To compel (someone) to serve in a military force.
  • To seize or confiscate (property) by force.
  • * Evelyn
    • the second five thousand pounds impressed for the service of the sick and wounded prisoners

    Synonyms

    * make an impression on * cut a figure * (produce a vivid impression of) * imprint, print, stamp * : pressgang * : confiscate, impound, seize, sequester

    Noun

    (es)
  • The act of impressing.
  • An impression; an impressed image or copy of something.
  • * Shakespeare
    • This weak impress of love is as a figure / Trenched in ice.
  • * 1908 , Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans , Norton 2005, p. 1330:
    • We know that you were pressed for money, that you took an impress of the keys which your brother held
  • A stamp or seal used to make an impression.
  • An impression on the mind, imagination etc.
  • * 2007 , John Burrow, A History of Histories , Penguin 2009, p. 187:
    • Such admonitions, in the English of the Authorized Version, left an indelible impress on imaginations nurtured on the Bible
  • Characteristic; mark of distinction; stamp.
    • (South)
  • A heraldic device; an impresa.
    • (Cussans)
  • * Milton
    • To describe emblazoned shields, / Impresses quaint.
  • The act of impressing, or taking by force for the public service; compulsion to serve; also, that which is impressed.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Why such impress of shipwrights?

    Related terms

    * impressed * impression * impressive * impressively

    External links

    * * *

    Anagrams

    * * * * English heteronyms English transitive verbs

    amaze

    English

    Verb

    (amaz)
  • (obsolete) To stupefy; to knock unconscious.
  • (obsolete) To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze.
  • * Shakespeare
    • a labyrinth to amaze his foes
  • (obsolete) To terrify, to fill with panic.
  • *, New York Review Books 2001, p.261:
    • [Fear] amazeth many men that are to speak or show themselves in public assemblies, or before some great personages […].
  • To fill with wonder and surprise; to astonish, astound, surprise or perplex.
    • He was amazed when he found that the girl was a robot.
  • * Bible, Matthew xii. 23
    • And all the people were amazed , and said, Is not this the son of David?
  • * Goldsmith
    • Spain has long fallen from amazing Europe with her wit, to amusing them with the greatness of her Catholic credulity.
  • To undergo amazement; to be astounded.

    • Related terms

    * amazing * amazement

    Noun

    (-)
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , I.ii:
    • All in amaze he suddenly vp start / With sword in hand, and with the old man went [...].
  • * 1891 , (Mary Noailles Murfree), In the "Stranger People's" Country , Nebraska 2005, p. 103:
    • Shattuck looked at him in amaze .
  • * 1985 , (Lawrence Durrell), Quinx'', Faber & Faber 2004 (''Avignon Quintet ), p. 1361:
    • She took the proffered cheque and stared at it with puzzled amaze , dazed by her own behaviour.