oppress

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /əˈpɹɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs
• Hyphenation: op‧press

Verb

1. (transitive) To keep down by unjust force.

   The rural poor were oppressed by the land-owners.

2. (transitive) To make sad or gloomy.

   We were oppressed by the constant grey skies.

3. (transitive, obsolete) Physically to press down on (someone) with harmful effects; to smother, crush.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:

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

Conjugation

Conjugation of oppress

infinitive	(to) oppress
	present tense	past tense
1st-person singular	oppress	oppressed
2nd-person singular
3rd-person singular	oppresses
plural	oppress
subjunctive	oppress	oppressed
imperative	oppress	—
participles	oppressing	oppressed

Related terms

• oppression

Translations

keep down by unjust force

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: أَخْمَدَ (ʔaḵmada)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: oprimir (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 壓迫／压迫 (zh) (yāpò), 压迫 (zh) (yāpò)

• Czech: utiskovat
• Danish: undertrykke
• Dutch: onderdrukken (nl)
• Esperanto: subpremi, kontraŭpremi
• Finnish: sortaa (fi), alistaa (fi)
• French: opprimer (fr)
• Galician: oprimir (gl)
• Georgian: ჩაგვრა (čagvra), შევიწროება (ševic̣roeba)
• German: unterdrücken (de)
• Greek: please add this translation if you can

  Ancient: βαρύνω (barúnō)

• Hungarian: elnyom (hu), nyomorgat (hu), sanyargat (hu)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: opprimere (it)
• Japanese: 圧迫する (あっぱくする, appaku suru)
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: 압박하다 (ko) (apbakhada)
• Latin: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: nonope, aupēhi, kaupēhipēhi, tāmi, tātāmi, pēhi, whakawhiu, where, whakapēhi
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Ngazidja Comorian: ukandamiza, udhulumu
• Portuguese: oprimir (pt)
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: притесня́ть (ru) (pritesnjátʹ)
• Sanskrit: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: oprimir (es)
• Swedish: nedtrycka
• Thai: กดขี่ (th) (gòt-kìi)
• Tibetan: གཉའ་གནོན་བཏང (gnya' gnon btang)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Uyghur: please add this translation if you can
• Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can

to make sad or gloomy

• Finnish: painaa + genitive + mieltä, ahdistaa (fi)
• French: oppresser (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hungarian: lehangol (hu), lesújt (hu), lever (hu)

Further reading

• “oppress”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “oppress”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• porpess, soppers