Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority: a people who were oppressed by tyranny.
- v. To weigh heavily on: Poverty oppresses the spirit.
- v. Obsolete To overwhelm or crush.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To press against or upon.
- To press unduly upon or against; overburden; weigh down, literally or figuratively: as, oppressed with care or anxiety; oppressed with fear.
- To overpower or overcome; overbear or overwhelm; suppress; subdue.
- To make languid; affect with lassitude: as, oppressed with the heat of the weather.
- To sit or lie heavy on: as, excess of food oppresses the stomach.
- To load or burden with cruel, unjust, or unreasonable impositions or restraints; treat with injustice or undue severity; wield authority over in a burdensome, harsh, or tyrannical manner; keep down by an unjust exercise of power.
- To ravish. Chaucer. Synonyms To weigh heavily upon, bear hard upon.
Wiktionary
- v. Physically to press down on (someone) with harmful effects; to smother, crush.
- v. To keep down by force
- v. To make sad or gloomy
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To impose excessive burdens upon; to overload; hence, to treat with unjust rigor or with cruelty.
- v. To ravish; to violate.
- v. To put down; to crush out; to suppress.
- v. To produce a sensation of weight in (some part of the body).
WordNet 3.0
- v. cause to suffer
- v. come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority
Etymologies
- Middle English oppressen, from Old French opresser, back-formation from oppression, oppression, from Latin oppressiō, oppressiōn-, from oppressus, past participle of opprimere, to press against : ob-, against; see ob- + premere, to press; see per-4 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Tell him that it's been a way for some people to control other people if he knows the word oppress, I'd say oppress -- a way for some people to oppress other people.”
“To oppress is bad enough, but to love to do so is much worse.”
“It is said that the oppressor shall be depress though by people praised, and that the oppress is at rest though by people blamed.”
“Polite palaver takes unstinted hours, and the sauntering of the people through the street emphasizes the impression that no business calls oppress them.”
“Nothing of this kind your friends have done, because they are solemnly pledged to do nothing of this kind; because, to tolerate all religions, and to equalise civil rights to all sects, is to oppose some of the worst passions of our nature -- to plunder and to oppress is to gratify them all.”
“The US originally avoided the use of tanks in Afghanistan precisely to avoid comparisons to the Soviet occupation, however last month it was announced that main battle tanks were being deployed to Helmand, although according to a US Colonel they won't be used to 'oppress' the Afghans.”
The Huffington Post: James Denselow: Haunted by the Soviet Afghan Legacy
“Religion does not "oppress" women, it enforces antiquated gender roles.”
TEXAS FAITH: Do religions oppress women? | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com
“The really big guys want to "oppress" and they will do everything in their power to do so!”
Norman Horowitz: What Is the Use Of Having Power If You Don't Abuse It?
“The majority of Muslims seem to believe that hostility to Christianity from Muslims is currently justified precisely because Christians and, especially, Jews "oppress" Muslims and "drive them from their homes.”
“Pathetically, the far right are now arguing that granting equal rights to a tiny minority will "oppress" them.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘oppress’.
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Words with a P in them
opalescent, apposite, kelp, culprit, corporeal, copper, impinge, impose, impetus, impassible, oppress, maple and 40 more...
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maf
sectarian, sectarian =narrow..., oppression, oppress, sort out, worldwide, legit, constrain, constrained, I feel constrained, constraint, divisive and 56 more...
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