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Webster 1913 Edition

Oppression

Op-pres′sion

,
Noun.
[F., fr. L.
oppressio
.]
1.
The act of oppressing, or state of being oppressed.
2.
That which oppresses; a hardship or injustice; cruelty; severity; tyranny.
“The multitude of oppressions.”
Job xxxv. 9.
3.
A sense of heaviness or obstruction in the body or mind; depression; dullness; lassitude;
as, an
oppression
of spirits; an
oppression
of the lungs.
There gentle Sleep
First found me, and with soft
oppression
seized
My drowsed sense.
Milton.
4.
Ravishment; rape.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Webster 1828 Edition

Oppression

OPPRES'SION

, n.
1.
The act of oppressing; the imposition of unreasonable burdens, either in taxes or services; cruelty; severity.
2.
The state of being oppressed or overburdened; misery.
the Lord - saw the oppression of Israel. 2Kings. 8.
3.
Hardship; calamity.
4.
Depression; dullness of spirits; lassitude of body.
5.
A sense of heaviness or weight in the breast, &c.

Definition 2024

oppression

oppression

English

Noun

oppression ‎(countable and uncountable, plural oppressions)

  1. The exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
    • Sir Walter Raleigh
      Oh, by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, oppressions, imprisonments, tortures, poisonings, and under what reasons of state and politic subtilty, have these forenamed kings […] pulled the vengeance of God upon themselves […]
  2. The act of oppressing, or the state of being oppressed.
    The oppression of the poor by the aristocracy was one cause of the French Revolution.‎
  3. A feeling of being oppressed.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 7, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      […] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.
    Our oppression was lifted by the reappearance of the sun.‎

Related terms

Translations

External links

  • oppression in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • oppression in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

French

Pronunciation

Noun

oppression f ‎(plural oppressions)

  1. oppression

Etymology

From Middle English oppression, from Old French oppression, from Latin oppressio ‎(“a pressing down, violence, oppression”), from opprimere, past participle oppressus ‎(“to press down”); see oppress.

Pronunciation

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