COMPRESSED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does compressed mean? 

• COMPRESSED (adjective)
  The adjective COMPRESSED has 3 senses:

1. pressed tightly together

2. reduced in volume by pressure

3. flattened laterally along the whole length (e.g., certain leafstalks or flatfishes)

  Familiarity information: COMPRESSED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• COMPRESSED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Pressed tightly together

Synonyms:

compressed; tight

Context example:

with lips compressed

Similar:

closed; shut (used especially of mouth or eyes)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Reduced in volume by pressure

Context example:

compressed air

Similar:

compressible (capable of being compressed or made more compact)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Flattened laterally along the whole length (e.g., certain leafstalks or flatfishes)

Synonyms:

compressed; flat

Similar:

thin (of relatively small extent from one surface to the opposite or in cross section)

Domain category:

biological science; biology (the science that studies living organisms)

 Context examples 

A solid dosage form containing medicinal substances that have been compressed to form a multiple-layered tablet or a tablet-within-a-tablet, the inner tablet being the core and the outer portion being the shell.

(Multilayered Tablet Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

Lord St. Simon had by no means relaxed his rigid attitude, but had listened with a frowning brow and a compressed lip to this long narrative.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A tablet composed of active and/or inert ingredient(s) that have been compressed to form a tablet that contains multiple layers.

(Multilayered Tablet Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus)

One piece, about three feet in length, had a very marked indentation at one end, while several were flattened at the sides as if they had been compressed by some considerable weight.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Or it may be the result of the cold gas streaming onto the galaxy being rapidly compressed and heated up, preventing it from cooling down into star-forming clouds in the galaxy's center.

(Massive Dead Disk Galaxy Challenges Theories of Galaxy Evolution, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

You would have compressed me into a two-by- four pigeonhole of life, where all life's values are unreal, and false, and vulgar.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The geometry of an object that is shaped like a spheroid compressed at the poles.

(Oblate, NCI Thesaurus)

A solid composed of a small granular or compressed mass that contains highly purified active and/or inert ingredient(s).

(Pellet Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus)

Their heads were thrown back, their lips compressed, their blood-stained swords poised over their right shoulders, and their left feet thrown out.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

His mouth certainly looked a good deal compressed, and the lower part of his face unusually stern and square, as the laughing girl gave him this information.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)