oppress
verb (used with object)
to burden with cruel or unjust impositions or restraints; subject to a burdensome or harsh exercise of authority or power.
were oppressing
-
past progressiveof oppress.past progressive
Used to describe an ongoing action or continuous state that was happening at a specific time in the past.
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.
Lady Staveley was more than ordinarily affectionate to her daughter, and in that way made known the thoughts which were oppressing her; but she did so in no other way.
From Orley Farm by Anthony Trollope
It was an effort to say anything; but mother and son, in their unselfishness, pitied each other, and strove vainly to lift the gloomy thoughts that were oppressing both.
From The Daughter of the Chieftain : the Story of an Indian Girl by Edward Sylvester Ellis
Disquieting visions of harsh prison punishments were oppressing me when we reached the penitentiary and I was taken before the eagle-eyed old Civil War veteran who had given me my parole.
From Branded by Francis Lynde
Incubus: something that weighs down and hinders. religious wars in the Netherlands: between the Protestant Dutch and the Catholic Spaniards, who were oppressing the country through great part of the sixteenth century.
From The History of London by Sir Walter Besant
The world's sorrows were oppressing you like a nightmare.
From Windyridge by W. Riley
