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Imp   /ɪmp/   Listen
noun
Imp  n.  
1.
A shoot; a scion; a bud; a slip; a graft. (Obs.)
2.
An offspring; progeny; child; scion. (Obs.) "The tender imp was weaned."
3.
A young or inferior devil; a little, malignant spirit; a puny demon; a contemptible evil worker. "To mingle in the clamorous fray Of squabbling imps."
4.
Something added to, or united with, another, to lengthen it out or repair it, as, an addition to a beehive; a feather inserted in a broken wing of a bird; a length of twisted hair in a fishing line. (Obs. or Prov. Eng.)


verb
Imp  v. t.  (past & past part. imped; pres. part. imping)  
1.
To graft; to insert as a scion. (Obs.)
2.
(Falconry) To graft with new feathers, as a wing; to splice a broken feather. Hence, (Fig.): To repair; to extend; to increase; to strengthen; to equip. (Archaic) "Imp out our drooping country's broken wing." "Who lazily imp their wings with other men's plumes." "Here no frail Muse shall imp her crippled wing." "Help, ye tart satirists, to imp my rage With all the scorpions that should whip this age."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Imp" Quotes from Famous Books



... example or two. If any were to speak now of royal children as "royal imps", it would sound, and with our present use of the word would be, impertinent and unbecoming enough; and yet 'imp' was once a name of dignity and honour, and not of slight or of undue familiarity. Thus Spenser addresses the Muses ...
— English Past and Present • Richard Chenevix Trench
... ain't it spelled so? Imperial begins with an i and so does imp, and, accordin' to what I learned when I went to school, empire begins ...
— Master of the Vineyard • Myrtle Reed
... dey er yer," he continued, "but dis ain't no climate whar de rice-birds flies inter yo' pockets en gits out de money an' makes de change derse'f; an' de isters don't shuck off der shells en run over you on de street, an' no mo' duz de s'imp hull derse'f an' drap in yo' mouf. But dey er yer, dough. De scads 'll ...
— Uncle Remus • Joel Chandler Harris
... that band the Devil straight appeared All black and ugly, and he had the form Of one accursed. The Prince of death began, 1170 The limping imp of hell, with wicked heart To accuse the holy man; this word he spake:— "A certain prince is come into your town, A stranger journeying from a distant land; Andrew I heard him called. He worked you scath But lately, when he led a company Great beyond measure from your prison strong; ...
— Andreas: The Legend of St. Andrew • Unknown
... the Table Talk, Hazlitt's translation, pp. 251, 252. As to the grotesques in mediaeval churches, the writer of this article, in visiting the town church of Wittenberg, noticed, just opposite the pulpit where Luther so often preached, a very spirited figure of an imp peering out upon the congregation. One can but suspect that this mediaeval survival frequently suggested Luther's favourite topic during his sermons. For Beza, see his Notes on the New Testament, ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White


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