Dictionary

unimprint en · VERB

Etymology

From un- + imprint.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To undo, in (a person or animal), the psychological process of imprinting.
   • Once ducklings are imprinted on someone or something, it's virtually impossible to unimprint them. Another feature of imprinting is that it must take place soon after the duckling is hatched or it won't take place at all. 1991, Judith Rich Harris, Robert M. Liebert, The Child: A Contemporary View of Development, page 203:
   • The MWRC animal care specialists attempted to unimprint the coyotes first by limiting their human contact and putting them with other wild coyotes. The hand-raised coyotes, however, were ostracized by the wild coyotes […] 1996, AnimaLife, volume 6, page 14:
   • Even more importantly: the psychoanalytic method of showing him the origins of his “imprinting” would hardly help unimprint him; […] 1979, George D. Goldman, Donald S. Milman, Modern Man, page 99:

Forms