oppress
to burden with cruel or unjust impositions or restraints; subject to a burdensome or harsh exercise of authority or power: a people oppressed by totalitarianism.
to lie heavily upon (the mind, a person, etc.): Care and sorrow oppressed them.
to weigh down, as sleep or weariness does.
Archaic. to put down; subdue or suppress.
Archaic. to press upon or against; crush.
Origin of oppress
1synonym study For oppress
Other words for oppress
Opposites for oppress
Other words from oppress
- op·press·i·ble, adjective
- op·pres·sor, noun
- pre·op·press, verb (used with object)
- re·op·press, verb (used with object)
- un·op·press·i·ble, adjective
Words that may be confused with oppress
- oppress , repress
Words Nearby oppress
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use oppress in a sentence
To make sure that we are committing to governing by including those who feel that they’ve been forgotten, oppressed and overlooked.
Nancy Pelosi isn’t the only woman in House leadership anymore. Meet incoming Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark | ehinchliffe | November 25, 2020 | FortuneThe fact that women can occupy the dual role of oppressor and oppressed is a reality that is still not fully understood.
Why It’s Important To See Women As Capable … Of Terrible Atrocities | LGBTQ-Editor | November 21, 2020 | No Straight NewsMy grandparents, Vartan and Yersapet, were among the proud but oppressed Armenian minorities in the Ottoman province of Adana.
How Biking Across America Formed an Unlikely Friendship | Raffi Joe Wartanian | October 8, 2020 | Outside OnlinePeople are just so angered, and their anger is directed at us, because we are part of the machine and the system that has oppressed them.
What Can Mayors Do When the Police Stop Doing Their Jobs? | by Alec MacGillis | September 3, 2020 | ProPublicaThe AI community is finally waking up to the fact that machine learning can cause disproportionate harm to already oppressed and disadvantaged groups.
Participation-washing could be the next dangerous fad in machine learning | Amy Nordrum | August 25, 2020 | MIT Technology Review
Instead, it was proof the government is out to oppress them.
Few will be heartened by the fact that the debt will oppress race-neutrally.
Did Needs-Blind Admission Create the College Debt Crisis? | John McWhorter | July 6, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSure, as Sotomayor wrote, “democratically approved legislation can oppress minority groups.”
Affirmative Action Isn’t Oppressive, but the Roberts Court Wants to End It Anyway | Mike Sacks | April 23, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTYou can only oppress a community for so long before they will fight with toothpicks against machine guns.
Sanford Mourns the Loss of Trayvon All Over Again | Jacqui Goddard | July 14, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHamas claims to be fighting for freedom while invoking laws that oppress women and religious minorities.
Let him that escapeth be consumed by the rage of the fire: and let them perish that oppress thy people.
The Bible, Douay-Rheims Version | VariousThe general sense clearly is, that the friars oppress the weak, but not the strong.
Chaucer's Works, Volume 1 (of 7) -- Romaunt of the Rose; Minor Poems | Geoffrey ChaucerI never injured a creature in my life, and can not find it in my heart to wish evil even to those who injure and oppress me.
Madame Roland, Makers of History | John S. C. AbbottIn the first place, I am an Anarchist: I do not believe in man-made law, designed to enslave and oppress humanity.
Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist | Alexander BerkmanThe employment of children and apprentices enabled the masters to oppress them; they were unable to earn more than 8s.
The Political History of England - Vol. X. | William Hunt
British Dictionary definitions for oppress
/ (əˈprɛs) /
to subjugate by cruelty, force, etc
to afflict or torment
to lie heavy on (the mind, imagination, etc)
an obsolete word for overwhelm
Origin of oppress
1Derived forms of oppress
- oppressingly, adverb
- oppressor, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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