compress
Americanverb (used with object)
-
compresses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
compressed,
past participle, past
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compressing
present participle
-
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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compresses
plural
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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
-
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
-
had compressedperfect
-
was compressingprogressive
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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
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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:
A key benefit of the design is that it does not require energy to compress air before combustion begins.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 4, 2026
Higher rates don’t just compress stock valuations — they could also reduce the amount companies are willing or able to spend on capital expenditures, Kersmanc noted.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
They also installed advanced sensors that can detect movement up to one-billionth of a meter by using fiber optic cables that can extend or compress if any ground deformation occurs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
Eventually, all these materials wind up at one of four baling machines that compress them into giant blocks, which then get moved around the facility’s storage area by crew-operated forklifts.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
I heard the door and opened my eyes to see the nurse with a cold compress in her hand.
From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
The collapsing capsule compresses fusion fuel to the extraordinary pressures and temperatures required for fusion reactions.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 20, 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
Because gas compresses when cooled, large LNG tankers can hold enough energy to power 70,000 homes for a year.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
Here, the Pacific Flyway compresses into a living mosaic of wings, water and soil.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
We can trace it clearly through Newton’s notebooks, even if he compresses it in his first publication.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Both numbers are Taalas’s own, and the cheaper one buys tokens from a compressed model.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
At extremely high densities, quantum effects can generate powerful pressure that prevents matter from being compressed without limit.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 11, 2026
Before Arendt became the great thinker of statelessness, bureaucracy had compressed her into these terms.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
“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
This would be rather difficult, however: the black hole would have the mass of a mountain compressed into less than a million millionth of an inch, the size of the nucleus of an atom!
From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking
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
The mathematics are proprietary, but Hassibi said the effect was much like compressing a digital photograph without losing visual fidelity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 31, 2026
The S&P 500 is 9.4% below its late January peak, with its price-to-earnings ratio compressing by 17%.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
It worked by compressing air into a container with a bellows and using the compressed air to power a dart or pellet.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
