repressed

[ ri-prest ]

adjective

1. subjected to, affected by, or characteristic of psychological repression:

   repressed emotional conflicts.

Other Words From

• nonre·pressed adjective
• unre·pressed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of repressed¹

First recorded in 1900–05; repress + -ed ²

Example Sentences

Freud thought dreams were our subconscious showing us our repressed wishes.

From MIT Technology Review

For whatever repressed childhood reason, a wave of guilt washes over me when uneaten food goes into the trash.

From Popular-Science

Those making the case for reparations invariably uphold themselves as a historically repressed minority deserving of reparations.

From Time

Hongmei’s trauma helps explain her venting to the strange man — she’s been trained to think of every misstep as a regret, and it’s easier to share so many repressed secrets with a stranger than with her husband.

From Washington Post

Judge Frollo’s actions are ruled by his own repressed sexual desires, which grow until they render him desperate and diabolical.

From Vox

But perhaps even more interesting is the type of user-generated content coming from areas of the country some consider repressed.

From The Daily Beast

And yet, collectively our culture is still repressed when it comes to the subject of sex.

From The Daily Beast

This inner world, as Freud and others had previously suggested, was a fiction of repressed fantasies, dreams, and visions.

From The Daily Beast

The characters in Downton and in that time period are often quite reserved and their emotions are repressed.

From The Daily Beast

Repressed anger is one of the key dimensions to this struggle.

From The Daily Beast

But for the delinquency of his son, she had ocular demonstration; and her indignation was hardly to be repressed.

From Project Gutenberg

She repressed her anger at Marius's sneering interference, and made a little gesture of dismay with her eloquent white hands.

From Project Gutenberg

As a natural consequence her repressed but still rebellious passions diffused their poison throughout her nature.

From Project Gutenberg

It was as if the Dowager's voice had opened the floodgates of her sorrow and let out the tears that hitherto had been repressed.

From Project Gutenberg

I have seen Scotch homes where laughter is considered ill-bred, and the joyous shouts of children are repressed.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• barred
• blocked
• closed
• confined
• controlled
• defined
• deprived
• prescribed
• reduced
• restrained
• secured
• shortened
• tethered