repressive
[ri-pres-iv]
- tending or serving to repress: repressive laws.
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Origin of repressive
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for repressive
Contemporary Examples
A society that was exclusive and repressive is now freer and more open.
What future repressive policies will these killings be used to justify?
One Former Hostage Says Negotiate With ISIS, And Pay Ransoms If You MustSarah Shourd
September 6, 2014
Repressive regimes forced the people here to join parties and causes.
On the Ground, Collaborators With ISIS Could Be Its Big WeaknessChristine van den Toorn
August 30, 2014
By restricting aid to only registered groups, the State Department is colluding with repressive regimes, fear democracy advocates.
These tactics are accompanied by other repressive measures—including, increasingly, online media censorship.
Historical Examples
It is repressive of freedom, and the reason is that its doctrine is after all no more than negative.
History of ReligionAllan Menzies
The repressive system may check unruliness, but can never influence for good.
Criminal ManGina Lombroso-Ferrero
But of government only as a directing and repressive power.'
Socialism As It IsWilliam English Walling
What he wants to abolish is the repressive, not the productive state.
A Preface to PoliticsWalter Lippmann
It is neither warm nor chill, neither moist nor dry; but it is repressive.
repressive
- acting to control, suppress, or restrain
- subjecting people, a society, etc, to a state of subjugation
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for repressive
adj.
early 15c., from Middle French repressif, from Latin repress-, past participle stem of reprimere (see repress). Related: Repressively.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
repressive
(rĭ-prĕs′ĭv)- Causing or inclined to cause repression.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.