oppress
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
From Middle English oppressen, from Old French oppresser, from Medieval Latin oppressare (“to press against, oppress”), frequentative of Latin opprimere, past participle oppressus (“to press against, press together, oppress”), from ob (“against”) + premere, past participle pressus (“to press”); see press.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈpɹɛs/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɛs
- Hyphenation: op‧press
Verb
oppress (third-person singular simple present oppresses, present participle oppressing, simple past and past participle oppressed)
- (transitive) To keep down by unjust force.
- The rural poor were oppressed by the land-owners.
- (transitive) To make sad or gloomy.
- We were oppressed by the constant grey skies.
- (transitive, obsolete) Physically to press down on (someone) with harmful effects; to smother, crush.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- Most mercilesse of women, VVyden hight, / Her other sonne fast sleeping did oppresse, / And with most cruell hand him murdred pittilesse.
- (transitive, obsolete) To sexually violate; to rape.
Conjugation
Related terms
Translations
keep down by unjust force
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Further reading
- “oppress”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “oppress”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
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