compress
Americanverb (used with object)
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to press together; force into less space.
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to cause to become a solid mass.
to compress cotton into bales.
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to condense, shorten, or abbreviate.
The book was compressed by 50 pages.
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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
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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.
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an apparatus for compressing cotton bales.
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a warehouse for storing cotton bales before shipment.
verb
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(tr) to squeeze together or compact into less space; condense
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computing to apply a compression program to (electronic data) so that it takes up less space
noun
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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
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a machine for packing material, esp cotton, under pressure
Synonym Usage
See contract.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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compressiblenessnoun
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overcompressverb (used with object)
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precompressverb (used with object)
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compressibleadjective
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noncompressibleadjective
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uncompressibleadjective
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compressiblyadverb
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compressinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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compresssimple
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compressessimple
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have compressedperfect
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has compressedperfect
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am compressingprogressive
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are compressingprogressive
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is compressingprogressive
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have been compressingperfect progressive
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has been compressingperfect progressive
Past
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compressedsimple
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had compressedperfect
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was compressingprogressive
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were compressingprogressive
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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
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Vocabulary Video Contest (2013) - List 1
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The Thing About Jellyfish
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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.
See Examples For:
Still, the West End hasn’t been spared the squeeze as rising costs outpace inflation and compress profit margins.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
However, the company has seen its stock valuation compress in recent months.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
“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
I took the compress from Jonas’s head and went to cool it in the snow.
From "Between Shades of Gray" by Ruta Sepetys
Both Eisenman and Turner recommend cooling your body temperature with cold compresses or cool showers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
Far below Europa's bitterly cold exterior, a global ocean may remain liquid because Jupiter's immense gravitational pull repeatedly stretches and compresses the moon.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
“It is agentic-first, it compresses timelines from months to days and it is designed so customers are self-sufficient when a deployment ends,” Amazon said.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
"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
My chest compresses into a tiny, pulsing ball.
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
“A shorter timeline would be artificially compressed and risks depriving this Court of a full record on which to decide this $110 billion case.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
It becomes a little compressed, a little messier and somehow more itself.
From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026
In the second quarter, Charlotte, N.C.-based Truist Financial’s net interest margin compressed by 0.04 percentage points from a year prior.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
Rising rates and this depressed investor sentiment have compressed the price-to-book ratio to 1.7 times.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026
“She will be found,” repeated Habib, his lips compressed into a tight line.
From "Shooting Kabul" by N. H. Senzai
This weather pattern results in air sinking downwards, compressing and heating up as it hits the ground.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
Fusion requires heating and compressing nuclear fuel to make superheated plasma in which atomic nuclei combine, releasing energy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 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
This is compressing cost structures, lowering wage costs and boosting earnings growth, especially among small caps, driving margin expansion.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 27, 2026
Darkness engulfed them, along with the sensation of compressing bands, but something was wrong....Hermione’s hand seemed to be sliding out of his grip....
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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.
