Definition of "imp"

(obsolete) To engraft or plant (a plant or part of one, a sapling, etc.).

(figuratively, archaic) To graft or implant (something other than a plant); to fix or set (something) in.  quotations

(falconry, veterinary medicine) To engraft (a feather) on to a broken feather in a bird's wing or tail to repair it; to engraft (feathers) on to a bird, or a bird's wing or tail.  quotations  examples

(by extension)

1. (figuratively, from sense 3) To provide (someone or something) with wings, hence enabling them or it to soar.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • With thee / Let me combine, / And feel this day thy victorie: / For, if I imp my wing on thine, / Affliction ſhall advance the flight in me.

     , George Herbert, “Easter Wings”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple: Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […]; reprinted London: Elliot Stock, […], 1885, page 35

2. To add to or unite a object with (something) to lengthen the latter out or repair it; to eke out, enlarge, strengthen.  examples

(chiefly fiction and mythology) A small, mischievous sprite or a malevolent supernatural creature, somewhat comparable to a demon but smaller and less powerful, formerly regarded as the child of the devil or a demon (see sense 3.2).  quotations

(by extension)

1. (often humorous) A mischievous child.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Concourſe, and noiſe, and toil, he ever fled; / Nor cared to mingle in the clamorous fray / Of ſquabbling imps; but to the foreſt ſped, / Or roam'd at large the lonely mountain's head; […]

     1771, James Beattie, The Minstrel; or, The Progress of Genius. A Poem. Book the First, 2nd edition, London: […] Edward and Charles Dilly, […]; Edinburgh: A[lexander] Kincaid and W[illiam] Creech; and J[ohn] Bell, […], stanza XIX, page 10

   • […] I've left my young children to look after themselves, and a more mischievous and troublesome set of young imps doesn't exist, ma'am; […]

     1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, “The Further Adventures of Toad”, in The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, page 221

2. A baby Tasmanian devil.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • When they are upset, their ears blush a furious crimson, resembling red horns and adding to their diabolical image. (Baby devils, packed four to a pouch, are known as imps.)]

     , Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, archived from the original on 4 May 2021

   • Although this devil was new to her – he was at the neck of the peninsula, which she visited only once a year – she often trapped the same devils dozens of times over the years, watching them grow from tiny imps in their mothers’ pouches to the grizzled old age of about 5.

     2014 March 31, Julie Rehmeyer, “Fatal Cancer Threatens Tasmanian Devil Populations”, in Discover: Science for the Curious‎, Waukesha, Wis.: Kalmbach Publishing, archived from the original on 8 November 2020

   • Siberian Tigers vs. Tasmanian Devils […] Tasmanian devils are marsupials, mammals with pouches. Females give birth to tiny, undeveloped babies called imps. About twenty to thirty imps are born at one time. The imps race to survive. They crawl about 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) to their mother's pouch. The first few to arrive attach themselves to the mother's four nipples. Only these four imps survive.

     2015, Rebecca E. Hirsch, “The Life Cycle of Siberian Tigers”, in Siberian Tigers: Camouflaged Hunting Mammals (Comparing Animal Traits), Minneapolis, Minn.: Lerner Publications Company, page 28

(obsolete)

1. A young shoot of a plant, a tree, etc.; a sapling; also, a part of a plant used for grafting; a graft.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • Þai sett hem doun al þre / Vnder a fair ympetre, / And wel sone þis fair quene / Fel on slepe opon þe grene.They set them down all three / Under a fair imp-tree, / And well soon this fair queen / Fell asleep upon the green.]

     (in Middle English), Breslau: Verlag von Wilhelm Koebner, published 1880, page 89, lines 67–70

   • [Atheists and Epicures,] ſeeke they not by all meanes poſſible too weede all Religion, all feare of GOD, all remorſe of conſcience out of mennes harts? Out of theſe rootes ſpring other impes, no leſſe perniciouſe than the ſtockes of whiche they come: […]

     1571, Arthur Golding, “To the Right Honorable and His Verie Good Lord Edward de Vere Erle of Oxinford, […]”, in John Calvin, translated by Arthur Golding, The Psalmes of Dauid and Others. VVith M. Iohn Caluin’s Commentaries, London: […] Thomas East and Henry Middelton; for Lucas Harison, and G[e]orge Byshop, 1st part, folio iii, verso

2. (generally) a (usually male) child; a (young) man.  quotations  examples

   Quotations

   • And thou moſt dreaded impe of higheſt Ioue, / Faire Venus ſonne, that with thy cruell dart / At that good knight ſo cunningly didſt rove, / That glorious fire it kindled in his heart, / Lay now thy deadly Heben bow apart, / And with thy mother milde come to my ayde: […]

     1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 3, page 2

   • [B]efore / The tender impe was wained from the teat, / The Princess Maud him tooke, in vertues lore / She brought him vp, […]

     1600, [Torquato Tasso], “The First Booke of Godfrey of Bulloigne”, in Edward Fairefax [i.e., Edward Fairfax], transl., Godfrey of Bulloigne, or The Recouerie of Ierusalem. […], London: […] Ar[nold] Hatfield, for I[saac] Iaggard and M[atthew] Lownes, stanza 59, page 13

3. (Britain, dialectal) Something added to or united with another to lengthen it out or repair it (such as an eke or small stand on which a beehive is placed, or a length of twisted hair in a fishing line).  examples