repressive
Americanadjective
adjective
-
acting to control, suppress, or restrain
-
subjecting people, a society, etc, to a state of subjugation
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of repressive
1375–1425; late Middle English < Medieval Latin repressīvus < Latin repress ( us ) ( see repress) + -īvus -ive
Explanation
Repressive things keep people from doing or saying what they want. Repressive controls on the press don't allow journalists to freely report the news. It's almost always a government, or a political or social system, that acts in a repressive way. When police officers don't let citizens videotape arrests, or a society doesn't allow girls to attend school, it's repressive. Someone growing up in a repressive family might feel cautious about saying or doing the wrong things. The adjective repressive comes from the Latin root repressus, "held back or curbed," and also "checked or restrained."
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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.
After the second World War, Enver Hoxha ushered in a severely isolated and repressive Communist regime.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
To decide what to fund, staffers with deep expertise typically pored over reams of information on abuses under the most repressive regimes and held an open competition to fund groups to work in those countries.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
Levine Cava, the Miami-Dade mayor, said her Venezuelan constituents—Miami has the largest Venezuelan exile community in the U.S.—fear returning to a country where the same repressive regime remains in power.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
According to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, Iran is one of the world's most repressive countries for press freedom.
From BBC ● Mar. 15, 2026
He didn't care about repressive institutions and he certainly didn't plan to be underfoot.
From "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher" by Bruce Coville
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
