Search the Dictionary

s 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.

The act of oppressing, or state of being oppressed.

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

One who oppresses; one who imposes unjust burdens on others; one who harasses others with unjust laws or unreasonable severity. The orphan pines while the oppressor feeds. Shak. To relieve the oppressed and to punish the oppressor. Swift.

Oppression. [Obs.]

Not oppressive or burdensome. O. Wolcott.

Oppression; hardship; injury; grievance. [Archaic]

To give pain or sorrow to; to afflict; hence, to oppress or injure in one's rights; to bear heavily upon; -- now commonly used in the passive TO be aggrieved. Aggrieved by oppression and extortion. Macaulay.

panied by painful constriction at the upper part of the belly, often with palpitation and oppression.

f restlessness and agitation, often with general indisposition and a distressing sense of oppression at the epigastrium. Dunglison.

Oppressing with fear or horror; appalling; terrible; as, an awful scene. "The hour of Nature's awful throes." Hemans.

Under, in relation to something that is superior, or that oppresses or burdens. Our country sinks beneath the yoke. Shak.

t; an abettor; a backer. [Colloq.] Lord Palmerston considered himself the bottleholder of oppressed states. The London Times.

That which is borne with labor or difficulty; that which is grievous, wearisome, or oppressive. Deaf, giddy, helpless, left alone, To all my friends a burden grown. Swift.

One who loads; a oppressor.

Grievous to be borne; causing uneasiness or fatigue; oppressive. The debt immense of endless gratitude So burdensome. Milton.

o repress; to curb. So many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and oppression. Burke.

Oppressive; without motion or ventilation; causing a feeling of lassitude; -- said of the air, weather, etc. If the rooms be low-roofed, or full of windows and doors, the one maketh the air close, . . . and the other maketh it exceeding unequal. Bacon.

nsolence; despiteful treatment; disdain; contemptuousness in act or speech; disgrace. The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely. Shak. Nothing aggravates tyranny so much as contumely. Burke.

To oppress or burden grievously. Thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway. Deut. xxviii. 33.