suppressed

American  

[suh-prest] / səˈprɛst /

adjective

1. stopped or kept from carrying on normal activity.

   In the late 1700s, all members of the suppressed Jesuit Order flocked to Rome from other European countries where they were not tolerated.

2. kept in or repressed, as a laugh, feeling, thought, etc..

   I heard a suppressed giggle from under the bed.

3. withheld from disclosure or publication.

   There is a reasonable probability that the suppressed evidence would have produced a different verdict.

4. stopped or arrested, as a cough, bodily process, etc..

   Their study examines how viral therapy combined with a suppressed immune response could be more effective against solid tumors.

5. vanquished or subdued; quelled.

   Six casino workers were killed in a brutally suppressed strike.

6. done away with or abolished, by or as by authority.

   Generations later, descendants of the colonists have generally accepted the formerly suppressed practice of tattooing.

7. kept from being expressed genetically.

   The promise of reversing sickle cell disease symptoms by reactivating a suppressed gene has attracted considerable interest.

---

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of suppress.

Other Word Forms

• nonsuppressed adjective
• quasi-suppressed adjective
• suppressedly adverb
• unsuppressed adjective
• well-suppressed adjective

Etymology

Origin of suppressed

suppress ( def. ) + -ed ² ( def. )

Explanation

If something is suppressed, it has been kept secret or forcibly restricted. You may hear rumors about a suppressed report on a politician's activities — it's kept secret, so you don't know the facts. It doesn't always take an outside force to make something suppressed — you can do it yourself. You might occasionally have a suppressed feeling of rage. (Psychiatrists, who are in the business of bringing such feelings to light, might frown on this.) Sometimes something that's suppressed is also oppressed — that is, harshly put down or brutally controlled, like a suppressed minority group. Both suppressed and oppressed come from the same Latin word, opprimere, meaning "to press against, or crush."

Example Sentences

This pattern indicates that star formation had recently been suppressed in those galaxies.

From Science Daily • Mar. 30, 2026

Having suppressed its military for years in an attempt to atone for the horrors it perpetrated, can Germany fulfil its newfound ambition to become Europe's preeminent military power?

From BBC • Mar. 27, 2026

Some countries that suppressed fuel prices this month are already struggling to keep up with demand.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026

And an underpinning of loneliness and suppressed yearning.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 18, 2026

Our house is now termite-free, and the wonders of Sin City are memories best suppressed.

From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman

Related Words

• barred
• blocked
• closed
• confined
• controlled
• defined
• deprived
• prescribed
• reduced
• restrained
• secured
• shortened
• tethered