repress
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to keep under control, check, or suppress (desires, feelings, actions, tears, etc.).
- Antonyms:
- foster
-
to keep down or suppress (anything objectionable).
- Antonyms:
- foster
-
to put down or quell (sedition, disorder, etc.).
- Antonyms:
- foster
-
to reduce (persons) to subjection.
- Synonyms:
- crush
- Antonyms:
- foster
-
Psychology, Psychoanalysis. to reject (painful or disagreeable ideas, memories, feelings, or impulses) from the conscious mind.
verb (used without object)
verb
-
to keep (feelings, etc) under control; suppress or restrain
to repress a desire
-
to put into a state of subjugation
to repress a people
-
psychoanal to banish (thoughts and impulses that conflict with conventional standards of conduct) from one's conscious mind
Synonym Usage
See check 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
nonrepressiblenessnoun
-
repressernoun
-
overrepressverb (used with object)
-
nonrepressibleadjective
-
repressibleadjective
-
unrepressibleadjective
-
nonrepressiblyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
represssimple
-
repressessimple
-
have repressedperfect
-
has repressedperfect
-
am repressingprogressive
-
are repressingprogressive
-
is repressingprogressive
-
have been repressingperfect progressive
-
has been repressingperfect progressive
Past
-
repressedsimple
-
had repressedperfect
-
was repressingprogressive
-
were repressingprogressive
-
had been repressingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of repress
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English repressen, from Latin repressus (past participle of reprimere ), equivalent to re- re- + pressus, past participle of premere “to exert steady force against, apply pressure to, press”; see press 1
Explanation
Whether you're repressing a feeling, an idea or even a revolution, you're almost always going to be taking advantage of the press in repress. To repress something is to "press it down" where it can't be seen, heard or even recognized. Psychologists often try to help people recover memories that they've repressed so that they can feel free of them once and for all. What makes repress different from press is that repress is almost always used when you're talking about an idea, concept or something intangible. In other words, you repress, say, your emotions. You don't repress olives to get olive oil. However, you can repress someone or some group by intimidating them — like repressing the protesters by sending out cops on horseback.
Vocabulary lists containing repress
The Emancipation Proclamation (1862)
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A Christmas Carol
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100 SAT words Beginning with "R"
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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:
Give in to your feelings and risk your safety; repress your true self and you might survive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
Sheinbaum said earlier that the opening match was "guaranteed," though the left-leaning leader again ruled out using police to repress the demonstrations.
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
In response, governments have resorted to interventions to repress demand, such as rationing, issuing Covid-era like directives to work from home, and giving some domestic consumers priority over others.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
It said it will be sanctioning multiple entities, individuals and vessels to “stem the flow of revenue that the regime in Tehran uses to support terrorism abroad and repress its citizens.”
From MarketWatch ● Feb. 6, 2026
My mind still swirled dizzily, full of images I couldn’t understand, and some I fought to repress.
From "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer
Certain details of the scene are so grim she represses them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
Dubbed GENtoniK, the chemical cocktail both represses epigenetic factors that inhibit cell maturation and stimulates factors that promote it.
From Science Daily ● Jan. 31, 2024
The landlocked country borders China, which human rights groups say represses religious freedom.
From Reuters ● Sep. 3, 2023
It is a totalizing system that represses human agency and offers no escape: We are “like butterflies, pinned live and wriggling onto history’s collage.”
From New York Times ● Feb. 14, 2023
There is a heartless levity in your nature that nothing represses.
From The Bramleighs of Bishop's Folly by Lever, Charles James
In the 1980s, Iraq's late ruler Saddam Hussein, who repressed the Shia population, went to war with the Islamic republic.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
You contextualize learned behavior; you contextualize trauma and things they learned that make them these repressed adults.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 23, 2026
But when Jamie Bell was cast as Niall, the gentler, more repressed character of the duo, he persuaded Gadd to take the role.
From BBC ● Apr. 21, 2026
Coop’s larcenous ways awaken something in him that the straight-laced corporate life had repressed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 12, 2026
But surrounding it was the stillness of nearmidnight in a country town, so that the hurrying feet and the repressed voices had a hollow reverberance.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
"By removing them and repressing their return, we're threatening our own future survival," he said.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
People fed up with rolling blackouts have staged sporadic protests in recent days, banging pots and shouting slogans against the government, rare demonstrations in a country known for repressing dissent.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2026
And in January, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin recommended they "consider handling cases from the perspective of repressing human trafficking".
From Barron's ● Dec. 17, 2025
This strategy involves the central bank artificially repressing bond yields in the market.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 19, 2025
"Thanks," I said, repressing an impulse to call him down about the "brother" business.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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.
