oppress
[uh-pres]
- to burden with cruel or unjust impositions or restraints; subject to a burdensome or harsh exercise of authority or power: a people oppressed by totalitarianism.
- to lie heavily upon (the mind, a person, etc.): Care and sorrow oppressed them.
- to weigh down, as sleep or weariness does.
- Archaic. to put down; subdue or suppress.
- Archaic. to press upon or against; crush.
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Origin of oppress
Synonyms
See more synonyms for oppress on Thesaurus.com1, 2. Oppress, depress, both having the literal meaning to press down upon, to cause to sink, are today mainly limited to figurative applications. To oppress is usually to subject (a people) to burdens, to undue exercise of authority, and the like; its chief application, therefore, is to a social or political situation: a tyrant oppressing his subjects. Depress suggests mainly the psychological effect, upon the individual, of unpleasant conditions, situations, etc., that sadden and discourage: depressed by the news. When oppress is sometimes used in this sense, it suggests a psychological attitude of more complete hopelessness: oppressed by a sense of failure. 1. maltreat, persecute.
Antonyms
2. uphold, encourage.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for oppress
Contemporary Examples
Instead, it was proof the government is out to oppress them.
Few will be heartened by the fact that the debt will oppress race-neutrally.
Sure, as Sotomayor wrote, “democratically approved legislation can oppress minority groups.”
Affirmative Action Isn’t Oppressive, but the Roberts Court Wants to End It AnywayMike Sacks
April 23, 2014
You can only oppress a community for so long before they will fight with toothpicks against machine guns.
Hamas claims to be fighting for freedom while invoking laws that oppress women and religious minorities.
Historical Examples
And do they not make use of your own generosity to oppress you?
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
How you oppress me, my dearest friend, with your politeness!
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
But I will not oppress you, my dearest friend, with further reflections of this sort.
Clarissa, Volume 2 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
White Fang knew the law well: to oppress the weak and obey the strong.
White FangJack London
The code he learned was to obey the strong and to oppress the weak.
White FangJack London
oppress
- to subjugate by cruelty, force, etc
- to afflict or torment
- to lie heavy on (the mind, imagination, etc)
- an obsolete word for overwhelm
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Word Origin
C14: via Old French from Medieval Latin oppressāre, from Latin opprimere, from ob- against + premere to press
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for oppress
v.
mid-14c., from Old French opresser "oppress, afflict; torment, smother" (13c.), from Medieval Latin oppressare, frequentative of Latin opprimere "press against, press together, press down;" figuratively "crush, put down, subdue, prosecute relentlessly" (in Late Latin "to rape"), from ob "against" (see ob-) + premere "to press, push" (see press (v.1)).
It is the due [external] restraint and not the moderation of rulers that constitutes a state of liberty; as the power to oppress, though never exercised, does a state of slavery. [St. George Tucker, "View of the Constitution of the United States," 1803]
Related: Oppressed; oppressing.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper