OPPRESS • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Oppress

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/əprˈɛs/ Listen

verb

Oppress v. t. (past & past part. oppressed; pres. part. oppressing)

To impose excessive burdens upon; to overload; hence, to treat with unjust rigor or with cruelty. "For thee, oppressèd king, am I cast down." "Behold the kings of the earth; how they oppress Thy chosen!"

To ravish; to violate. (Obs.)

To put down; to crush out; to suppress. (Obs.) "The mutiny he there hastes to oppress."

To produce a sensation of weight in (some part of the body); as, my lungs are oppressed by the damp air; excess of food oppresses the stomach.

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Etymology of 'Oppress'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Oppress" Quotes from Famous Books

... hideous ruin into a bower, as the Alp roses and the Iva make a garden for one short month of the roughest rocks in the Grisons. Only that which lives and of which the life is beautiful can reconcile us to those surroundings which would otherwise offend our sense of harmony, or oppress us with a dullness even more deadly than mere ugliness ...

— Paul Patoff • F. Marion Crawford

... that the heaviest of his crimes were inspired by this wife of his, who sought to befoul his name in the ears of the people whom she led him to oppress, and how bitter jealousy drove him to cruel acts, the last and worst of which caused him foully to violate the law of hospitality, and in attempting to bring about the death of blameless guests at their hands ...

— Ayesha - The Further History of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed • H. Rider Haggard

... confessed that here Rousseau was dreaming of times that probably never existed.] when men were all free and equal, when nobody claimed to own the land which God had made for all, when there were no wars to kill, no taxes to oppress, no philosophers to deceive ...

— A Political and Social History of Modern Europe V.1. • Carlton J. H. Hayes

... that law. He also thought that it was a good provision for that free circulation of money so necessary for the course of commerce and exchange. And when a king must distribute all those extraordinary accessions that increase treasure beyond the due pitch, it makes him less disposed to oppress his subjects. Such a king as this will be the terror of ill men, and will be beloved by all ...

— Utopia • Thomas More

... betide, In Thy compassion tender. When grief and stress My heart oppress, Thou wilt redress And constant ...

— Hymns and Hymnwriters of Denmark • Jens Christian Aaberg

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