Repress

/ɹəˈpɹɛs/ · verb

Meaning

(transitive) To forcefully prevent an upheaval from developing further..

Definitions by Sense

1. (transitive) To forcefully prevent an upheaval from developing further.
2. (transitive, by extension) To check; to keep back.
3. To press again.
4. A record pressed again; a repressing.

Example Sentences

to repress rebellion or sedition

to repress the first risings of discontent

Deſire of wine and all delicious drinks […] Thou couldſt repreſs,

to repress a vinyl record

It had been a fraught car journey. From it my abiding memory is Charlie Troy having a deep but short-lived relationship with a smoking cigarette, rummaging after in the depthless depth of a shiny black handbag for a forbidden lipstick, finding it, applying it in Heaney’s mirror with a magician’s dexterity that defied the inconsistencies of the road, pressing, unpressing, and repressing her lips until the look came to her satisfaction and the bow was drawn.

Save for the shows he actually taped — Dylan, Springsteen, Page & Plant and other kindred spirits — his own titles by 1994 were just represses of hard-to-find Japanese or American titles.

Synonyms for repress

Antonyms for repress

Related Words

Word Forms

• represses
• repressing
• repressed

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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