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# imprinting

noun (imprinting — uncountable); verb form (imprinting — present participle of imprint)

«imprinting» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

1. (biology) Imprinting is the way some baby animals, like ducklings and goslings, learn to follow and trust the first moving thing they see after hatching, usually their mother. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprinting/#m1)
2. Imprinting is the act of pressing or printing a mark or design onto something. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprinting/#m2)

### In the lessons

In science lessons imprinting explains why ducklings line up behind their mother, and why a gosling that first sees a person may follow that person; the scientist Konrad Lorenz studied this with geese. In design lessons imprinting means printing a logo onto T-shirts or mugs. Phrases: «imprinting on», «the imprinting period».

### Examples

- Ducklings follow their mother because of imprinting. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprinting/#x1)
- The goslings imprinted on the farmer and followed him everywhere. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprinting/#x2)
- Konrad Lorenz studied imprinting in geese. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprinting/#x3)
- Imprinting happens in the first hours after a chick hatches. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprinting/#x4)
- The factory is imprinting the school logo on our new sweatshirts. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprinting/#x5)
- Zookeepers wear puppets so the chicks do not start imprinting on people. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprinting/#x6)

### Note

As a verb form: «The chick is imprinting on its mother». As a noun it is uncountable. Imprinting mostly happens soon after birth; it is not ordinary learning by practice.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «imprinting» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/I/imprinting/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«imprinting» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/imprinting.html) on Mova free.