Oppress

//əˈpɹɛs// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Oppression. countable, obsolete, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To keep down by unjust force. transitive

    "The rural poor were oppressed by the land-owners."

  2. 2
    come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority wordnet
  3. 3
    To make sad or gloomy. transitive

    "We were oppressed by the constant grey skies."

  4. 4
    cause to suffer wordnet
  5. 5
    Physically to press down on (someone) with harmful effects; to smother, crush. obsolete, transitive

    "Most mercilesse of women, VVyden hight, / Her other sonne fast sleeping did oppresse, / And with most cruell hand him murdred pittilesse."

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  1. 6
    To sexually violate; to rape. obsolete, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
persecutesuppressdepressrackabuseabuse

Example

More examples

"Hooray! We have another dreamy, starry-eyed idealist to disenfranchise and oppress!"

Etymology

From Middle English oppressen, from Old French oppresser, from Medieval Latin oppressare (“to press against, oppress”), frequentative of Latin opprimere, past participle oppressus (“to press against, press together, oppress”), from ob (“against”) + premere, past participle pressus (“to press”); see press.

Related phrases

keep down

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