oppress

English

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)

1. (transitive) To keep down by unjust force.

   The rural poor were oppressed by the land-owners.

2. (transitive) To make sad or gloomy.

   We were oppressed by the constant grey skies.

3. (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.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To sexually violate; to rape.

Conjugation

Related terms

• oppression
• oppressive

Translations

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

• porpess, soppers