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.

The ANC did have some success in changing South Africa in the years after the end of apartheid, which had oppressed the Black majority through a system of racist laws for nearly a half-century.

From Seattle Times • May 23, 2024

Led by Toussaint Louverture, Africans on the island violently threw off their enslavers, whose countrymen themselves had only recently overthrown a monarchy that had oppressed people for generations.

From New York Times • Jul. 21, 2021

The ordinary people of the land – the heroes of the story – would triumph over those who had oppressed them.

From The Guardian • Sep. 9, 2017

Nyingi became animated in discussing the issue of how Kenya's first two presidents, Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi, had oppressed veterans of the armed struggle for independence.

From Reuters • Jul. 17, 2012

His own countrymen were groaning under a bondage more servile than that which had oppressed the Americans.

From Sages and Heroes of the American Revolution by Judson, L. Carroll