to impress someone
3
2.6
- phrasal verb
:
impressionar a alguien
- As much as I want to impress someone else, I am also assessing someone else for the position of a long term partner.
- want to impress someone
- trying to impress someone
This was truly a limo that you could buy for yourself, hire someone to drive you around, and impress anyone who really knows luxury.
- This was truly a limo that you could buy for yourself, hire someone to drive you around, and impress anyone who really knows luxury.
- And now when we're trying to impress someone, we start becoming what we think they need or want us to be.
- We don't have to impress anyone and we don't need to relinquish an iota of our faith to coexist with anyone.
- So I'd go into debt to buy a thing to impress someone so they felt a way about me.
Examples
-
Clearly, he managed to impress someone—probably a lot of someones—very early on.
Blog text (21) -
She always tries to impress someone at her interviews by dressing professionally.
-
And now when we're trying to impress someone, we start becoming what we think they need or want us to be.
-
So are you trying to impress someone?
-
But it's like, being yourself is, like, not changing yourself to impress someone else.
-
Men have become materialistic because they want to impress someone.
Blog text (23) -
Don't ever change yourself to impress someone, because they should be impressed that you don't change to please others.
Blog text (4) -
His ability to solve complex problems seemed to impress someone during the meeting.
-
In an attempt to impress someone, he prepared a special presentation about his achievements.
Synonyms
457
2.8
To make someone admire you or accept an idea
294
1.0
To surprise someone very much
71
2.2
To please people by being friendly and attractive
63
4.1
To amaze people with great skill, beauty, or clever ideas
37
3.6
To make someone feel very surprised and pleased
24
4.1
To fill someone with a feeling of respect and wonder, sometimes with fear, often caused by something impressive or beautiful
19
4.2
To attract and hold someone's full attention
4
4.9
To get respect and authority from other people because of your behavior or position
1
4.4
To make someone feel very amazed and full of admiration
1
6.7
Make an audience like you and pay close attention
Antonyms
How Impressive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to cause someone to feel admiration or respect' is directly and compositionally derived from the verb 'impress' (produce admiration) plus the object 'someone'; there is no idiomatic shift. This is a basic transitive verb + object pattern common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will understand it.
Etymology
Impress someone may come from the old image of impress meaning to press a stamp or seal into wax or paper to leave a clear mark. That image of leaving a mark on someone explains why it now means 'to cause someone to feel admiration or respect'.