OPPRESSION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does oppression mean? 

• OPPRESSION (noun)
  The noun OPPRESSION has 3 senses:

1. the act of subjugating by cruelty

2. the state of being kept down by unjust use of force or authority:

3. a feeling of being oppressed

  Familiarity information: OPPRESSION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OPPRESSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of subjugating by cruelty

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

oppression; subjugation

Context example:

the tyrant's oppression of the people

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

persecution (the act of persecuting (especially on the basis of race or religion))

Derivation:

oppress (come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of being kept down by unjust use of force or authority:

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

after years of oppression they finally revolted

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

subjection; subjugation (forced submission to control by others)

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

yoke (an oppressive power)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A feeling of being oppressed

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Synonyms:

oppression; oppressiveness

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

depression (sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy)

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

weight (an oppressive feeling of heavy force)

 Context examples 

It may have been that the need of natural sleep, and the strange oppression of the air were beginning to overcome me.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I was alone; none were near me to dissipate the gloom and relieve me from the sickening oppression of the most terrible reveries.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Anne felt an instant oppression, and wherever she looked saw symptoms of the same.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

But you feel solitude an oppression?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

This violent oppression of spirits continued the whole evening.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I never shall forget the waking, next morning; the being cheerful and fresh for the first moment, and then the being weighed down by the stale and dismal oppression of remembrance.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Perjury, oppression, subornation, fraud, pandarism, and the like infirmities, were among the most excusable arts they had to mention; and for these I gave, as it was reasonable, great allowance.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I would be understood to mean, that it can be only weak, irresolute characters, (whose happiness must be always at the mercy of chance,) who will suffer an unfortunate acquaintance to be an inconvenience, an oppression for ever.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

His manners, though serious, were mild; and his reserve appeared rather the result of some oppression of spirits than of any natural gloominess of temper.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

When I could cry no more, I began to think; and then the oppression on my breast was heaviest, and my grief a dull pain that there was no ease for.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)