Oppression

Pronunciation

Origin

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.

Full definition of oppression

Noun

1. The exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.
• Sir Walter RaleighOh, 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, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 7, … 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.
4. Our oppression was lifted by the reappearance of the sun.

Related terms

• oppress