imprinting

[ im-prin-ting ]

/ ɪmˈprɪn tɪŋ /

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noun Animal Behavior, Psychology.

rapid learning that occurs during a brief receptive period, typically soon after birth or hatching, and establishes a long-lasting behavioral response to a specific individual or object, as attachment to parent, offspring, or site.

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Origin of imprinting

1937; imprint + -ing¹, translation of German Prägung, K. Lorenz's term

Words nearby imprinting

imprest fund, imprimatur, imprimis, imprint, imprinter, imprinting, imprison, imprisonment, improbability, improbable, improbity

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use imprinting in a sentence

How the process of imprinting works remains mysterious, but we know that it kneecaps embryonic cells’ ability to develop into multiple types of mature cells and limits their potential for genetic engineering.
Scientists Use CRISPR to Condense a Million Years of Evolution Into Mere Months|Shelly Fan|September 11, 2022|Singularity Hub
More channels, more competition for the viewers' attention, means fewer shows imprinting themselves on the culture.
Thank You for Being a Friend: Why TV Re-runs Never Grow Old|Tim Teeman|May 10, 2014|DAILY BEAST
The new oil paint, that is, reveals the sacred story of spiritual light imprinting on matter better than ever before.
Giovanni Bellini’s St. Francis Painting Deconstructed|Blake Gopnik|July 3, 2011|DAILY BEAST
Imprinting is introduced in Eclipse as an involuntary, lifelong attachment to a soul mate.
The Future of Twilight|Natasha Vargas-Cooper|July 1, 2010|DAILY BEAST

The fastidious and leisurely still seal their envelopes with wax, imprinting thus their monogram.
The Etiquette of To-day|Edith B. Ordway
Chocolate manufacturers seemed to have a passion for imprinting their Quakerly names on every bit of stuff they sold.
The Card, A Story Of Adventure In The Five Towns|Arnold Bennett
Each morning the child greets his father by imprinting a kiss upon the hand.
The World and Its People: Book VII|Anna B. Badlam
He shook his head, his eyes roaming over her hungrily, imprinting every detail of her beauty on his memory to stay.
Kildares of Storm|Eleanor Mercein Kelly
From whom was the paper purchased on which appears the imprinting on the exhibit identified here as Commission Exhibit No. 996.
Warren Commission (5 of 26): Hearings Vol. V (of 15)|The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy

British Dictionary definitions for imprinting

imprinting

/ (ɪmˈprɪntɪŋ) /

noun

the development through exceptionally fast learning in young animals of recognition of and attraction to members of their own species or to surrogates

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for imprinting

imprinting

[ ĭm′prĭn′tĭng ]

A rapid learning process by which a newborn or very young animal establishes a behavior pattern of recognition and attraction towards other animals of its own kind, as well as to specific individuals of its species, such as its parents, or to a substitute for these. Ducklings, for example, will imprint upon and follow the first large moving object they observe. In nature, this is usually their mother, but they can be made to imprint upon other moving objects, such as a soccer ball.

imprinting

Origin of imprinting

Words nearby imprinting

Words related to imprinting

How to use imprinting in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for imprinting

Scientific definitions for imprinting