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Imprint vs Engrave - What's the difference?

imprint | engrave |

As verbs the difference between imprint and engrave

is that imprint is to leave a print, impression, , etc while engrave is to carve text or symbols into (something), usually for the purposes of identification or art.

As a noun imprint

is an impression; the mark left behind by printing something.

imprint

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) empreinte, from the past participle of empreindre, from (etyl)

Noun

(en noun)
  • An impression; the mark left behind by printing something.
    • The day left an imprint in my mind.
  • The name and details of a publisher or printer, as printed in a book etc.; a publishing house.
  • A distinctive marking, symbol or logo.
    • The shirts bore the company imprint on the right sleeve.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) empreinter, from the past participle of empreindre, from (etyl)

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To leave a print, impression, image, etc.
    • For a fee, they can imprint the envelopes with a monogram.
  • * Prior
    • And sees his num'rous herds imprint her sands.
  • * Cowper
    • Nature imprints upon whate'er we see, / That has a heart and life in it, "Be free."
  • * John Locke
    • ideas of those two different things distinctly imprinted on his mind
  • To learn something indelibly at a particular stage of life, such as who one's mother is.
  • To mark a gene as being from a particular parent so that only one of the two copies of the gene is expressed.

    • engrave

    English

    Alternative forms

    * (l)

    Etymology 1

    From earlier ingrave, equivalent to . More at (l).

    Verb

    (engrav)
  • (lb) To carve text or symbols into (something), usually for the purposes of identification or art.
  • :
  • *
  • *:Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ΒΆ ("I never) understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."
  • (lb) To carve (something) into a material.
  • :
    • Synonyms
    * carve, etch, inscribe

    Etymology 2

    From .

    Verb

    (engrav)
  • (obsolete) To put in a grave, to bury.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.i:
    • So both agree their bodies to engraue ; / The great earthes wombe they open to the sky [...].

    Anagrams

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