oppress
Americanverb (used with object)
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to burden with cruel or unjust impositions or restraints; subject to a burdensome or harsh exercise of authority or power.
a people oppressed by totalitarianism.
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to lie heavily upon (the mind, a person, etc.).
Care and sorrow oppressed them.
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to weigh down, as sleep or weariness does.
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Archaic. to put down; subdue or suppress.
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Archaic. to press upon or against; crush.
verb
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to subjugate by cruelty, force, etc
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to afflict or torment
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to lie heavy on (the mind, imagination, etc)
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an obsolete word for overwhelm
Related Words
Oppress, depress, both having the literal meaning to press down upon, to cause to sink, are today mainly limited to figurative applications. To oppress is usually to subject (a people) to burdens, to undue exercise of authority, and the like; its chief application, therefore, is to a social or political situation: a tyrant oppressing his subjects. Depress suggests mainly the psychological effect, upon the individual, of unpleasant conditions, situations, etc., that sadden and discourage: depressed by the news. When oppress is sometimes used in this sense, it suggests a psychological attitude of more complete hopelessness: oppressed by a sense of failure.
Other Word Forms
- oppressible adjective
- oppressingly adverb
- oppressor noun
- preoppress verb (used with object)
- reoppress verb (used with object)
- unoppressible adjective
Etymology
Origin of oppress
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English oppressen, from Middle French oppresser, from Medieval Latin oppressāre, derivative of Latin oppressus, past participle of opprimere “to squeeze, suffocate,” equivalent to op- “to, toward, against” + -primere (combining form of premere ) “to press”; op-, press 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“We are the grandchildren of the protesters. We are the grandchildren of the oppressed,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times
Harbored at different times by Yemen, Syria, East Germany and communist Hungary, this self-appointed tribune of the oppressed was finally captured in Sudan in 1994, then convicted in France of multiple murders.
“Yes, the queer community has villains, we have people who are seeking to oppress us,” Rice says in the film.
From Los Angeles Times
Occasionally undone by melodramatic tendencies, “All That’s Left of You” catalogs the emotional toll that occupation visits on the oppressed.
From Los Angeles Times
"These rules lack humanity and rationality, and they oppress us every day."
From Barron's
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
