DEPRESSION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Depression mean? 

• DEPRESSION (noun)
  The noun DEPRESSION has 10 senses:

1. a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity

2. a long-term economic state characterized by unemployment and low prices and low levels of trade and investment

3. a sunken or depressed geological formation

4. sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy

5. a period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment

6. an air mass of lower pressure; often brings precipitation

7. a state of depression and anhedonia so severe as to require clinical intervention

8. a concavity in a surface produced by pressing

9. angular distance below the horizon (especially of a celestial object)

10. pushing down

  Familiarity information: DEPRESSION used as a noun is familiar.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DEPRESSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("depression" is a kind of...):

mental condition; mental state; psychological condition; psychological state ((psychology) a mental condition in which the qualities of a state are relatively constant even though the state itself may be dynamic)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "depression"):

melancholia (extreme depression characterized by tearful sadness and irrational fears)

blue devils; blues; megrims; vapors; vapours (a state of depression)

blue funk; funk (a state of nervous depression)

melancholy (a constitutional tendency to be gloomy and depressed)

slough of despond ((formal) extreme depression)

low spirits (a state of mild depression)

dejection (a state of melancholy depression)

Antonym:

elation (an exhilarating psychological state of pride and optimism; an absence of depression)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A long-term economic state characterized by unemployment and low prices and low levels of trade and investment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

depression; economic crisis; slump

Hypernyms ("depression" is a kind of...):

crisis (an unstable situation of extreme danger or difficulty)

economic condition (the condition of the economy)

Instance hyponyms:

Great Depression (the economic crisis beginning with the stock market crash in 1929 and continuing through the 1930s)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A sunken or depressed geological formation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

depression; natural depression

Hypernyms ("depression" is a kind of...):

formation; geological formation ((geology) the geological features of the earth)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "depression"):

hole; hollow (a depression hollowed out of solid matter)

vale; valley (a long depression in the surface of the land that usually contains a river)

trough (a narrow depression (as in the earth or between ocean waves or in the ocean bed))

deep; oceanic abyss; trench (a long steep-sided depression in the ocean floor)

sink; sinkhole; swallow hole (a depression in the ground communicating with a subterranean passage (especially in limestone) and formed by solution or by collapse of a cavern roof)

lowland (low level country)

crater (a bowl-shaped depression formed by the impact of a meteorite or bomb)

bed; bottom (a depression forming the ground under a body of water)

basin (a natural depression in the surface of the land often with a lake at the bottom of it)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Hypernyms ("depression" is a kind of...):

sadness; unhappiness (emotions experienced when not in a state of well-being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "depression"):

demoralisation; demoralization (depression resulting from an undermining of your morale)

helplessness (a feeling of being unable to manage)

despondence; despondency; disconsolateness; heartsickness (feeling downcast and disheartened and hopeless)

oppression; oppressiveness (a feeling of being oppressed)

dysphoria (abnormal depression and discontent)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

Depression; Great Depression

Instance hypernyms:

age; historic period (an era of history having some distinctive feature)

Sense 6

Meaning:

An air mass of lower pressure; often brings precipitation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

depression; low

Context example:

a low moved in over night bringing sleet and snow

Hypernyms ("depression" is a kind of...):

air mass (a large body of air with uniform characteristics horizontally)

Holonyms ("depression" is a part of...):

cyclone ((meteorology) rapid inward circulation of air masses about a low pressure center; circling counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A state of depression and anhedonia so severe as to require clinical intervention

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

clinical depression; depression; depressive disorder

Hypernyms ("depression" is a kind of...):

affective disorder; emotional disorder; emotional disturbance; major affective disorder (any mental disorder not caused by detectable organic abnormalities of the brain and in which a major disturbance of emotions is predominant)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "depression"):

psychotic depression (a state of depression so severe that the person loses contact with reality and suffers a variety of functional impairments)

retarded depression (a state of clinical depression in which the individual is lethargic and slow to initiate action)

neurotic depression (a term used for any state of depression that is not psychotic)

major depressive episode ((psychiatry) a state of depression with all the classic symptoms (anhedonia and lethargy and sleep disturbance and despondency and morbid thoughts and feelings of worthlessness and sometimes attempted suicide) but with no known organic dysfunction)

exogenous depression; reactive depression (an inappropriate state of depression that is precipitated by events in the person's life (to be distinguished from normal grief))

endogenous depression (a state of depression for which there is no apparent precipitating cause)

dysthymia; dysthymic depression (mild chronic depression)

anaclitic depression (severe and progressive depression in infants who lose their mother and do not get a suitable substitute)

agitated depression (a state of clinical depression in which the person exhibits irritability and restlessness)

Sense 8

Meaning:

A concavity in a surface produced by pressing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Synonyms:

depression; impression; imprint

Context example:

he left the impression of his fingers in the soft mud

Hypernyms ("depression" is a kind of...):

concave shape; concavity; incurvation; incurvature (a shape that curves or bends inward)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "depression"):

droop; sag (a shape that sags)

chap; crack; cranny; crevice; fissure (a long narrow depression in a surface)

crease; crinkle; furrow; line; seam; wrinkle (a slight depression or fold in the smoothness of a surface)

dent; incision; prick; scratch; slit (a depression scratched or carved into a surface)

dimple (any slight depression in a surface)

channel; groove (a long narrow furrow cut either by a natural process (such as erosion) or by a tool (as e.g. a groove in a phonograph record))

dimple (a small natural hollow in the cheek or chin)

dip (a depression in an otherwise level surface)

Sense 9

Meaning:

Angular distance below the horizon (especially of a celestial object)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting relations between people or things or ideas

Hypernyms ("depression" is a kind of...):

angular position (relation by which any position with respect to any other position is established)

Sense 10

Meaning:

Pushing down

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

depression of the space bar on the typewriter

Hypernyms ("depression" is a kind of...):

push; pushing (the act of applying force in order to move something away)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "depression"):

click; mouse click (depression of a button on a computer mouse)

Derivation:

depress (press down)

 Context examples 

The disease’s widely varying symptoms can include tingling or numbness in extremities, motor and speech difficulties, weakness, fatigue, chronic pain, vision loss, and depression.

(Immune System Reset May Halt Multiple Sclerosis Progression, NIH)

Conducted in mice, the new study may help untangle multiple psychiatric conditions, including alcohol use disorder, anxiety disorders, insomnia, and depression in humans.

(Researchers identify key brain circuits for reward-seeking and avoidance behavior, National Institutes of Health)

Depression can have a powerfully negative effect on a parent’s ability to establish connections with their baby.

(Mothers’ and babies’ brains ‘more in tune’ when mother is happy, University of Cambridge)

Consequently, polar topographic depressions, such as impact craters, never see the Sun.

(The Moon and Mercury May Have Thick Ice Deposits, NASA)

Signs and symptoms include nausea, vomiting, severe abdominal pain and distension, urinary retention, port-wine urine discoloration, hypertension, tachycardia, muscle weakness, loss of sensation, anxiety, depression, and arm, leg and back pain.

(Acute Intermittent Porphyria, NCI Thesaurus)

This drug is used to treat symptoms of depression and may cause tardive dyskinesia.

(Amoxapine, NCI Thesaurus)

Associated symptoms include fatigue, obesity, confusion and depression.

(Adiposis Dolorosa, NCI Thesaurus)

It may be used to help control pain, stress, anxiety, and depression, and for overall health.

(Mind-body modality, NCI Dictionary)

An electrocardiographic finding of the minimum depression of the ST segment, obtained from a set of measurements of the depression of the ST segment.

(Minimum ST Segment Depression by ECG Finding, NCI Thesaurus)

A response indicating that an individual has or had moderate anxiety or depression.

(Moderately Anxious or Depressed, NCI Thesaurus)