compress
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to press together; force into less space.
-
to cause to become a solid mass.
to compress cotton into bales.
-
to condense, shorten, or abbreviate.
The book was compressed by 50 pages.
-
Computers. to reduce the storage space required for (data) by changing its format.
The algorithm should compress the video file without losing any quality.
noun
-
Medicine/Medical. a soft, cloth pad held in place by a bandage and used to provide pressure or to supply moisture, cold, heat, or medication.
-
an apparatus for compressing cotton bales.
-
a warehouse for storing cotton bales before shipment.
verb
-
(tr) to squeeze together or compact into less space; condense
-
computing to apply a compression program to (electronic data) so that it takes up less space
noun
-
a wet or dry cloth or gauze pad with or without medication, applied firmly to some part of the body to relieve discomfort, reduce fever, drain a wound, etc
-
a machine for packing material, esp cotton, under pressure
Synonym Usage
See contract.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
compressiblenessnoun
-
overcompressverb (used with object)
-
precompressverb (used with object)
-
compressibleadjective
-
noncompressibleadjective
-
uncompressibleadjective
-
compressiblyadverb
-
compressinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
compresssimple
-
compressessimple
-
have compressedperfect
-
has compressedperfect
-
am compressingprogressive
-
are compressingprogressive
-
is compressingprogressive
-
have been compressingperfect progressive
-
has been compressingperfect progressive
Past
-
compressedsimple
-
had compressedperfect
-
was compressingprogressive
-
were compressingprogressive
-
had been compressingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of compress
1350–1400; (v.) Middle English (< Middle French compresser ) < Late Latin compressāre, frequentative of Latin comprimere to squeeze together ( see com-, press 1); (noun) < Middle French compresse, noun derivative of the v.
Explanation
The noun compress refers to a pad that's held to your body to reduce pain or symptoms of illness. A washcloth dipped in cold water and pressed onto your forehead to help you cool down is a type of compress. As a verb, compress means to squeeze together with a fair amount of pressure. When you compress a sponge to get all the water out, you press it between your palms or squish it between your fingers. Compress can also mean to make something more compact — as with the sponge, when you compress an object it gets smaller. You could even compress a speech by cutting it down into a shorter but equally effective version.
Vocabulary lists containing compress
100 Great Words from "Fahrenheit 451" -- Part I Vocabulary
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
The Thing About Jellyfish
Want to remember this word for good? Start your learning journey today with our library of interactive, themed word lists built by the experts at Vocabulary.com – we'll help you make the most of your study time!
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.
See Examples For:
“You can hear that these buildings carry the echoes of the lives they contained because of the frescoes, the mosaics, the furniture. You feel 2,000 years compress and collapse. It’s like magic.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
These mathematical structures compress the information contained in a wave function so that it can be handled more efficiently.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 20, 2026
"At altitude, high pressure systems exert pressure on this warm air mass, and when we compress a warm air mass, we actually make it even hotter."
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
Wall Street anticipates Oracle’s operating margins to compress by about 3 percentage points as the company’s business mix shifts toward OCI, a more capital-intensive part of the business.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 9, 2026
Quickly he covered the whole wound with a large cotton compress and jerked his hand away.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
"Tessera compresses loads of that data and gives us really easy-to-use maps of the UK, where we can ask really specific questions about things we can see from space."
From BBC ● May 18, 2026
Here, the Pacific Flyway compresses into a living mosaic of wings, water and soil.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
TurboQuant compresses the KV cache — the temporary memory storing mid-conversation computations.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 6, 2026
Every AI-generated notification summary that compresses 20 minutes of scrolling into 30 seconds is 20 minutes of ad impressions that Meta never serves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 15, 2026
More cold compresses were delivered, and a hot-water bottle, and a headache lozenge.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
Martinez noted that Goldman now trades on just 13 times 2027 earnings, its multiple having compressed from 15 times before the second-quarter release.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
Maine Democrats now face a more immediate problem: naming a nominee by late July through a compressed state party process.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
That tightly compressed structure is notoriously challenging to assemble.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 6, 2026
Underneath the high pressure system sinking air compressed and warmed, lifting temperatures day by day.
From BBC ● Jun. 27, 2026
For emphasis, lips compressed, she brushed some imaginary tobacco flakes from the lap of her kimono.
From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger
This weather pattern results in air sinking downwards, compressing and heating up as it hits the ground.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
While the force between individual atoms is weak, it becomes remarkably strong across the large surface area of two dimensional materials, pulling the sheets together and compressing the water trapped between them.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 2, 2026
“Higher costs are eroding household purchasing power and compressing business margins, while heightened uncertainty is dampening business confidence and investment,” the UN said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
A ramjet External link uses an aircraft’s speed to “ram” air into the engine, compressing it in the process.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
Supernova explosions of massive early stars produced successive overlapping shock waves in the adjacent gas, compressing the intergalactic medium and accelerating the generation of clusters of galaxies.
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
