Definitions for "Impressment"
Keywords:  sailors, seizing, gangs, navy, usuallly
The act of seizing for public use, or of impressing into public service; compulsion to serve; as, the impressment of provisions or of sailors.
Applied to seaman, sea-faring men, and persons whose occupations were to work in vessels and boats upon rivers. Landsmen were impressed, but usuallly released. The majority of sailors, however, volunteered.
The act of seizing people or property for public service or use
The act of forcing a person into government service.
the act of coercing someone into government service