Depress

//dɪˈpɹɛs// verb

verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To press down.

    "Depress the upper lever to start the machine."

  2. 2
    lessen the activity or force of wordnet
  3. 3
    To make depressed, sad or bored.

    "Winter depresses me."

  4. 4
    press down wordnet
  5. 5
    To cause a depression or a decrease in parts of the economy.

    "Lower productivity will eventually depress wages."

Show 5 more definitions
  1. 6
    cause to drop or sink wordnet
  2. 7
    To bring down or humble; to abase (pride, etc.).
  3. 8
    lower someone's spirits; make downhearted wordnet
  4. 9
    To reduce (an equation) in a lower degree.
  5. 10
    lower (prices or markets) wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
dejectdispiritdownbearget downlowerpress down

Example

More examples

"Rain doesn't depress people who like reading."

Etymology

From Middle English depressen, from Old French depresser, from Latin dēpressus, perfect participle of dēprimō (“to press down, to weigh down”), from dē- (“off, away, down, out”) + premō (“to press”).

Related phrases

depress the pole

More for "depress"

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.