impose

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To establish or apply as compulsory; levy: impose a tax.
2. v. To apply or make prevail by or as if by authority: impose a peace settlement. See Synonyms at dictate.
3. v. To obtrude or force (oneself, for example) on another or others.
4. v. Printing To arrange (type or plates) on an imposing stone.
5. v. To offer or circulate fraudulently; pass off: imposed a fraud on consumers.
6. v. To take unfair advantage: You are always imposing on their generosity.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To lay on, or set on; put, place, or deposit: as, to impose, the hands in ordination or confirmation.
2. To lay as a burden, or something to be borne or endured; levy, inflict, or enforce, as by authority, power, or influence: as, to impose taxes or penalties; to impose one's opinions upon others.
3. To obtrude fallaciously or deceitfully; palm off; pass off.
4. To fix upon; impute.
5. To subject by way of punishment.
6. In printing, to lay upon an imposing-stone or the bed of a press and secure in a chase, as pages of type or stereotype plates. Pages or plates constituting a form or sheet are imposed in such order and at such intervals that they will appear in their right places and with the desired margin when the sheet printed from them is folded.
7. To lay or place a burden or restraint; act with constraining effect: with upon: as, to impose upon one's patience or hospitality.
8. To practise misleading trickery or imposture; act with a delusive effect: with upon: as, to impose upon one with false pretenses.
9. n. Command; injunction.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To establish or apply by authority.
2. v. intransitive to be an inconvenience
3. v. to enforce: compel to behave in a certain way

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To lay on; to set or place; to put; to deposit.
2. v. To lay as a charge, burden, tax, duty, obligation, command, penalty, etc.; to enjoin; to levy; to inflict.
3. v. (Eccl.) To lay on, as the hands, in the religious rites of confirmation and ordination.
4. v. (Print.) To arrange in proper order on a table of stone or metal and lock up in a chase for printing; -- said of columns or pages of type, forms, etc.
5. v. To practice tricks or deception.
6. n. obsolete A command; injunction.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. impose something unpleasant
2. v. impose and collect
3. v. compel to behave in a certain way