impressment
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English
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
impressment (countable and uncountable, plural impressments)
- The act of seizing for public use; impressing into public service, especially military service and (most often) naval service.
- Coordinate terms: conscription, draft
- 1808 February 3, Hansard:
- owing to the immense number of our sailors, and the extent of our commerce, we were enabled by impressment and other means, to fit out and man a powerful fleet in a few weeks
- 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “I am Sent Away from Home”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, , published 1850, →OCLC:
- Although it was a warm day, she seemed to think of nothing but the fire. I fancied she was jealous even of the saucepan on it; and I have reason to know that she took its impressment into the service of boiling my egg and broiling my bacon, in dudgeon […]
- 1988, James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom, Oxford, published 2004, page 833:
- A month later the governors of six more states, meeting in conference, enigmatically urged the impressment of slaves for “the public service as may be required.”
- 2002, Colin Imber, chapter 8, in The Ottoman Empire, 1300-1650: The Structure of Power, Palgrave Macmillan, page 294:
- […] in years when need was pressing, […] the government would order the construction of extra ships at specified points on the shores of the Black Sea and Mediterranean, and the impressment of craftsmen to do the work.
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