Dictionary entry

Oppression

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Op‐pres″sion (?), n. [F., fr. L. oppressio.]

1. The act of oppressing, or state of being oppressed.

2. That which oppresses; a hardship or injustice; cruelty; severity; tyranny. “The multitude of oppressions.” Job xxxv. 9.

3. A sense of heaviness or obstruction in the body or mind; depression; dullness; lassitude; as, an oppression of spirits; an oppression of the lungs.

There gentle Sleep

First found me, and with soft oppression seized

My drowsed sense. Milton.

4. Ravishment; rape. Chaucer.