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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

imp.

To engraft or plant (a plant or part of one, a sapling, etc.).

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/ɪmp/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. To engraft or plant (a plant or part of one, a sapling, etc.).

    obsolete · transitive
  2. To graft or implant (something other than a plant); to fix or set (something) in.

    archaic · figuratively · transitive
  3. To engraft (a feather) on to a broken feather in a bird's wing or tail to repair it; to engraft (feathers) on to a bird, or a bird's wing or tail.

    transitive
  4. To provide (someone or something) with wings, hence enabling them or it to soar.

    broadly · figuratively · transitive
  5. To add to or unite an object with (something) to lengthen the latter out or repair it; to eke out, enlarge, strengthen.

    broadly · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English impen, ympen (“to plant; (figuratively) to bury; to graft; to add to, insert, put into, set in; to mend (a falcon’s feather) by attaching a new feather on to the broken stump”), from Old English impian, ġeimpian (“to graft”), from Proto-West Germanic *impōn (“to graft”), from Vulgar Latin *imputō (“to graft”), from Ancient Greek ἔμφῠτος (émphŭtos, “implanted; planted”), from ἐμφῠ́ω (emphŭ́ō, “to implant”, from ἐν- (en-, prefix meaning ‘in’) + φῠ́ω (phŭ́ō, “to bring forth, produce; to grow”, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH- (“to appear; to become; to grow”))) + -τος (-tos).

noun/ɪmp/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. A small, mischievous sprite or a malevolent supernatural creature, somewhat comparable to a demon but smaller and less powerful, formerly regarded as the child of the devil or a demon (see sense 3.2).

    transitive
  2. A mischievous child.

    broadly · humorous · often · transitive
  3. A baby Tasmanian devil.

    broadly · transitive
  4. A supporter (or less commonly, a player) of the Lincoln City Football Club.

    UK · broadly · colloquial · transitive
  5. A young shoot of a plant, a tree, etc.; a sapling; also, a part of a plant used for grafting; a graft.

    obsolete · transitive
  6. An offspring or scion, especially of a noble family; (generally) a (usually male) child; a (young) man.

    obsolete · transitive
  7. Something added to or united with another to lengthen it out or repair it (such as an eke or small stand on which a beehive is placed, or a length of twisted hair in a fishing line).

    UK · dialectal · obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English impe, ympe (“tree branch; shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling; tree”) [and other forms], from Old English impa, impe (“shoot, sprig; graft, scion; young tree, sapling, seedling”), from impian, ġeimpian (“to graft”) (see etymology 1).

noun/ɪmp/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. Synonym of god (“person who owns and runs a multi-user dungeon”).

    slang · transitive
Where this word comes from

From implementer.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.