Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To hold back by an act of volition: couldn't repress a smirk.
- v. To put down by force, usually before total control has been lost; quell: repress a rebellion.
- v. Psychology To exclude (painful or disturbing memories, for example) automatically or unconsciously from the conscious mind.
- v. Biology To block (transcription of a gene) by combination of a protein to an operator gene.
- v. To take repressive action.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To press back or down effectually; crush; quell; put down; subdue; suppress.
- To check; restrain; keep under due restraint.
- Synonyms To curb, smother, overcome, overpower.
- 1 and Restrict, etc. See restrain.
- n. The act of subduing.
Wiktionary
- n. The act of repressing.
- v. To press again.
- v. To prevent forcefully an upheaval from developing further.
- v. Hence, to check; to keep back.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To press again.
- v. To press back or down effectually; to crush down or out; to quell; to subdue; to supress
- v. Hence, to check; to restrain; to keep back.
- n. obsolete The act of repressing.
WordNet 3.0
- v. block the action of
- v. put down by force or intimidation
- v. conceal or hide
- v. put out of one's consciousness
Etymologies
- Middle English repressen, from Latin reprimere, repress- : re-, re- + premere, to press; see per-4 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Inebriation, if not the wisest way to console and repress, is at least an opportune way to live with the knowledge that it is impossible to win affection.”
'Pleasure is now, and ought to be, your business': Stealing Sexuality in Jane Austen's _Juvenilia_
“Selling ideology not to inspire, but to repress is his main game, and he is quite good at it.”
“The groans, impossible to repress, that issued through the lips of”
“That's why is has to do with the unacknowledged and not the unknown, since ultimate realness is where we ALREADY ARE and this means our lives are grounded in that which we may "repress" (collectively or otherwise); however, please note that when you repress something, say death, you have to know what to repress in order to repress it.”
Humanity in general, and America in particular, have become contemptuous of wisdom
“Obama called on some regimes which "repress" their people, but everyone knows that those include only regimes which object to the American will.”
“The more I ceased to "repress" the political events of the Bush years, is the more I found myself overtaken with moral/rational outrage.”
A personal note to my friends (and otherwise) at Op-Ed News.
“It's sort of set me up to brew two articles I have been dieing to produce without having to "repress" myself .. one on BANKING and one on Arctic Sovereignty .. which are both diatribes REALLY against insitutionalized violence.”
“Plus, the educated American operates under a common understanding that we are to "deal with" unpleasantness in our past rather than "repress" it, and then seek something called closure.”
“In the case of a symptom, I "repress" this death and try not to think about it, but the repressed trauma returns in the symptom.”
“It cannot merely "repress," or it has become a caricature of itself (which often happens, obviously through no fault of God).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘repress’.
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1100
abound, technology, branch of knowled..., prognosticate, automaton, matron, an older married ..., realm, special field of ..., kingdom, annals, historical records and 981 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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hunting
crudely, unequivocal, obsolete, obscure, overtly, misdeed, shack, inherent, outcry, hefty, composed, poised and 318 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Anxiety
apprehension =wor..., regularity, dread, brood, palpitation, gradual, troublesome, virtually, irrational=unreas..., phobia=irrational..., phobic=fearful= adj, affiliated=united and 54 more...
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The Blacklist
Stop SOPA.
blackout, redact, bowdlerize, censor, remove, conceal, bleach, bleep, blue-pencil, control, edit, excise and 24 more...
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GRE 1100
drudgery, implore, hapless, nuance, wrest, incipient, inadvertent, tremulous, bristle, euphemism, disdain, pugnacious and 346 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Favorites
disparage, partisan, cupidity, hokum, tussle, odious, dastardly, overture, plane, chronic, peering, peer and 328 more...
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1100 words you need to know
GRE words
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron, paradox, realm and 288 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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Words to Learn
colloquium, resilient, ruminate, missive, sylvan, indefatigable, preclude, prowess, quiescent, caustic, verdant, specter and 119 more...
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List 1
the list of vocabularies from 1100 words you need to know Barron's.
conceded, eminent, prognosticate, indiscriminate, voracious, replete, abound, badger, drudgery, interminable, perceive, tinge and 248 more...
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GRE 3500 Q
quadruped, quaff, quaint, quandary, quarry, quay, queasy, quell, querulous, quibble, quietude, quip and 89 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for repress.
dailyword Holmes does this sometimes, according to Watson. Jun 18, 2012
bilby Holland, Sweden, Denmark, England and Spain haven't abandoned their monarchies and they've all been key players in the development of the EC and then EU. Even monarchies though can have their periods of instability.
It's not clear what you are implying about instability. If Bush/McCain is voted out and Obama voted in, is that necessarily instability simply because it is not 'continuing government' in the sense of having the same party & leader? The organs of state continue to function as a more or less seamless transition is made from the old to the new.
One of the more specious arguments in defense of the current Australian system (constitutional monarchy) is that we have had 'continuous stable government since 1901', thereby implying that another system could not have achieved this. Jun 26, 2009
chained_bear There is such a thing as stable governments, or as you prefer, "regimes." I think the article does have a point, but if you don't, that's fine. I was just posting a usage, anyway. Jun 25, 2009
bilby It's an article with a very weak central premise, which in any case doesn't make much of a broader point about regimes. Jun 25, 2009
seanahan Is there any regime that has lasted forever? What is the longest continuing government in the world? Pretty much every country I can think of in Europe has abandoned the monarchy in the last two hundred years. Most of Asia has undergone significant changes since World War I (or II). Africa can't have that many stable regimes, most have probably been overturned in the last half century. One could argue that all governments are inherently unstable. Jun 25, 2009
chained_bear "But regimes that repress the civil and human rights of half their population are inherently unstable. Sooner or later, there has to be a backlash. In Iran, we're watching one unfold."
—Anne Appelbaum, "Woman Power," Slate, June 22, 2009 (seen here)
Jun 23, 2009