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everence; grandeur; exalted dignity, whether proceeding from rank, character, or bearing; imposing loftiness; stateliness; -- usually applied to the rank and dignity of sovereigns. The Lord reigneth; he is clothed with majesty. Ps. xciii. 1. No sovereign has ever represented the majesty of great state with more dignity…

The act of moderating, or of imposing due restraint.

To punish for an offense or misdemeanor by imposing a fine or forfeiture, esp. a pecuniary fine; to fine.

Imposing a pecuniary penalty; consisting of, or paid as, a fine. Fines, or some known mulctuary punishments. Sir W. Temple.

Binding in law or conscience; imposing duty or obligation; requiring performance or forbearance of some act; -- often followed by on or upon; as, obedience is obligatory on a soldier. As long as the law is obligatory, so long our obedience is due. Jer. Taylor.

That which is displayed; a show; a spectacle; an imposing procession; the movement of any body marshaled in military order; as, a parade of firemen. In state returned the grand parade. Swift.

their punishment. -- Penal laws, Penal statutes (Law), laws prohibited certain acts, and imposing penalties for committing them. -- Penal servitude, imprisonment with hard labor, in a prison, in lieu of transportation. [Great Brit.] -- Penal suit, Penal action (Law), a suit for penalties.

A door or gate; hence, a way of entrance or exit, especially one that is grand and imposing. Thick with sparkling orient gems The portal shone. Milton. From out the fiery portal of the east. Shak.

Having a dignified port or mien; of a noble appearance; imposing.

To be lifted, or to admit of being lifted, from the imposing stone without dropping any of the type; -- said of a form.

The privilege formerly enjoyed the lord of a manor, of holding courts, trying causes, and imposing fines. Cowell.

will; he can do nothing in this age. There is another personage abroad, -- a person less imposing, -- in the eyes of some, perhaps, insignificant. The schoolmaster is abroad; and I trust to him, armed with his primer, against the soldier in full military array. Brougham.

Money, esp. paper money. [Slang, U.S.] Stamp act, an act of the British Parliament [1765] imposing a duty on all paper, vellum, and parchment used in the American colonies, and declaring all writings on unstamped materials to be null an void. -- Stamp collector, an officer who receives or collects stamp duties; one wh…

on which to arrange the pages of a book, newspaper, etc., before printing; -- called also imposing stone.

Imposing reciprocal obligations upon the parties; as, a synallagmatic contract. Bouvier.

The act of laying a tax, or of imposing taxes, as on the subjects of a state, by government, or on the members of a corporation or company, by the proper authority; the raising of revenue; also, a system of raising revenue.

Partaking of, or combining, both divinity and humanity. [R.] The gorgeous and imposing figures of his [Homer's] theanthropic sytem. Gladstone.

A magnificent and imposing ceremonial performed in honor of a general who had gained a decisive victory over a foreign enemy.