Library / English Dictionary

OPPRESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority

Example:

The government oppresses political activists

Synonyms:

crush; oppress; suppress

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "oppress"):

keep down; quash; reduce; repress; subdue; subjugate (put down by force or intimidation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

oppression (the act of subjugating by cruelty)

oppressive (marked by unjust severity or arbitrary behavior)

oppressor (a person of authority who subjects others to undue pressures)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Cause to suffer

Example:

Some religious groups are persecuted in some countries

Synonyms:

oppress; persecute

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "oppress" is one way to...):

bedevil; crucify; dun; frustrate; rag; torment (treat cruelly)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "oppress"):

purge (oust politically)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

oppressive (marked by unjust severity or arbitrary behavior)

oppressor (a person of authority who subjects others to undue pressures)

Credits

 Context examples: 

He did not know why, but he felt oppressed by the vague sense of impending calamity.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

There is a strange heaviness in the air—I say heaviness for want of a better word; I mean that it oppresses us both.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

So might our fame have gone down together for all time, and you be numbered with Sir Percival or Sir Galahad, or all the other rescuers of oppressed ladies.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I trust that I am not more dense than my neighbours, but I was always oppressed with a sense of my own stupidity in my dealings with Sherlock Holmes.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As for myself, I was oppressed with nightmare.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

She said I oppressed her by leaning over the bed, and again demanded water.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The calm and polite unconcern of Lady Middleton on the occasion was a happy relief to Elinor's spirits, oppressed as they often were by the clamorous kindness of the others.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I chiefly fed mine eyes with beholding the destroyers of tyrants and usurpers, and the restorers of liberty to oppressed and injured nations.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Well, said she, I am not in voice, and it is ill to play in a little room with but two to listen, but you must conceive me to be the Queen of the Peruvians, who is exhorting her countrymen to rise up against the Spaniards, who are oppressing them.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A thousand alarming presentiments of evil to her beloved Catherine from this terrific separation must oppress her heart with sadness, and drown her in tears for the last day or two of their being together; and advice of the most important and applicable nature must of course flow from her wise lips in their parting conference in her closet.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)