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Meaning of OPPRESSION

Pronunciation:  u'preshun

WordNet Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
  1. [n]  the act of subjugating by cruelty
  2. [n]  a feeling of being oppressed
  3. [n]  kept down by unjust use of force or authority; "the tyrant's oppression of the people"
 
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 Synonyms: oppressiveness, subjugation
 
 See Also: depression, persecution, subjection, subjugation, weight

 

 

Webster's 1913 Dictionary
 
 Definition: 
\Op*pres"sion\, n. [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 gentlee Sleep First found me, and with soft
         oppression seized My drowsed sense.   --Milton.
4. Ravishment; rape. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
 
Thesaurus Terms
 
 Related Terms: abuse, affliction, airlessness, anguish, argumentum baculinum, bale, big stick, bitter cup, bitter draft, bitter draught, bitter pill, blank despondency, burden, burden of care, burdening, burthen, cankerworm of care, care, cargo, charge, charging, closeness, cross, crown of thorns, cumber, cumbrance, curse, deadweight, death wish, dejectedness, dejection, depression, despair, despondency, despondentness, despotism, discouragement, disheartenment, dispiritedness, distress, domination, domineering, down trip, downcastness, downer, downheartedness, drag, drooping spirits, encumbrance, enslavement, fascism, freight, gall, gall and wormwood, grievance, handicap, harassment, hardship, harrying, heartlessness, heavy hand, high hand, hopelessness, hounding, incubus, incumbency, infliction, injury, injustice, iron boot, iron hand, iron heel, lading, load, loading, low spirits, lowness, lowness of spirit, malaise, maltreatment, McCarthyism, millstone, oppressiveness, overload, overtaxing, overweighting, pack of troubles, pain, peck of troubles, persecution, pessimism, pressure, red-baiting, reign of terror, repression, saddling, Schmerz, sea of troubles, self-destructive urge, sinking heart, Slough of Despond, sorrow, spiritlessness, stuffiness, subjection, subjugation, suicidal despair, superincumbency, suppression, surcharge, taedium vitae, taxing, terrorism, thorn, thought control, torment, tormenting, torture, trouble, tyranny, victimization, waters of bitterness, weariness of life, weight, witch-hunt, witch-hunting, woe
 

 

 

 

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