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

Unreasonably burdensome; unjustly severe, rigorous, or harsh; as, oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of service; an oppressive game law. Macaulay.

Rigor; violence. [Obs.] Gower.

To abate in severity; to become less rigorous. In others she relaxed again, And governed with a looser rein. Prior.

Of or pertaining to Rhadamanthus; rigorously just; as, a Rhadamanthine judgment.

Severity; rigor. [Obs. orR.] Bp. Burnet.

Having or observing logical sequence; logically consistent and rigorous; consecutive in development or transition of thought. The scheme of pantheistic omniscience so prevalent among the sequacious thinkers of the day. Sir W. Hamilton. Milton was not an extensive or discursive thinker, as Shakespeare was; for the motio…

Very strict in judgment, discipline, or government; harsh; not mild or indulgent; rigorous; as, severe criticism; severe punishment. "Custody severe." Milton. Come! you are too severe a moraler. Shak. Let your zeal, if it must be expressed in anger, be always more severe against thyself than against others. Jer. Taylor…

Gravity or austerity; extreme strictness; rigor; harshness; as, the severity of a reprimand or a reproof; severity of discipline or government; severity of penalties. "Strict age, and sour severity." Milton.

Cutting in language or import; biting; sarcastic; cruel; harsh; rigorous; severe; as, a sharp rebuke. "That sharp look." Tennyson. To that place the sharp Athenian law Can not pursue us. Shak. Be thy words severe, Sharp as merits but the sword forbear. Dryden.

Fig.: Anything of extreme hardness; that which is characterized by sternness or rigor. "Heads of steel." Johnson. "Manhood's heart of steel." Byron.

Having a certain hardness or severity of nature, manner, or aspect; hard; severe; rigid; rigorous; austere; fixed; unchanging; unrelenting; hence, serious; resolute; harsh; as, a sternresolve; a stern necessity; a stern heart; a stern gaze; a stern decree. The sterne wind so loud gan to rout. Chaucer. I would outstare…

Strict; scrupulous; rigorous. Some certain edicts and some strait decrees. Shak. The straitest sect of our religion. Acts xxvi. 5 (Rev. Ver.).

In a strait manner; narrowly; strictly; rigorously. Mark i. 43.

Exact; accurate; precise; rigorously nice; as, to keep strict watch; to pay strict attention. Shak. It shall be still in strictest measure. Milton.

An ignorant or irrational worship of the Supreme Deity; excessive exactness or rigor in religious opinions or practice; extreme and unnecessary scruples in the observance of religious rites not commanded, or of points of minor importance; also, a rite or practice proceeding from excess of sculptures in religion. And th…

rbitrary or despotic exercise of power; exercise of power over subjects and others with a rigor not authorized by law or justice, or not requisite for the purposes of government. "Sir," would he [Seneca] say, "an emperor mote need Be virtuous and hate tyranny." Chaucer.

oportioned; excessive; immoderate; inordinate; as, an undue attachment to forms; an undue rigor in the execution of law. Undue influence (Law), any improper or wrongful constraint, machination, or urgency of persuasion, by which one's will is overcome and he is induced to do or forbear an act which he would not do, or…

; not required under the circumstances; unless; needless; as, unnecessary labor, care, or rigor. -- Un*nec"es*sa*ri*ly, adv. -- Un*nec"es*sa*ri*ness, n.

Rigorous; severe; afflictive. [R.] "Attend our weightier judgment." Shak.