"consequence, importance," 1580s; sense of "that which is imported" is from 1680s; both from import (v.).
An out-of-town date brought to a dance, party, etc (1940s+ Students)
data
To read data that is not in the native format of the application. For example, a web browser will have its own way of storing bookmarks but it will usually provide a function to import bookmarks from Internet Explorer. The alternative is to provide an independent external conversion utility but this is usually less convenient for the user.
(2004-11-15)