Adjacent Words

Oppressive definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

OPPRESS'IVE, a.
1. Unreasonably burdensome; unjustly severe; as oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of service.
2. Tyrannical; as an oppressive government.
3. Heavy; overpowering; overwhelming; as oppressive grief or woe.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: weighing heavily on the senses or spirit; "the atmosphere was oppressive"; "oppressive sorrows"
2: marked by unjust severity or arbitrary behavior; "the oppressive government"; "oppressive laws"; "a tyrannical parent"; "tyrannous disregard of human rights" [syn: oppressive, tyrannical, tyrannous]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Date: circa 1677 1. unreasonably burdensome or severe <oppressive legislation> 2. tyrannical 3. overwhelming or depressing to the spirit or senses <an oppressive climate> Synonyms: see onerous • oppressively adverb • oppressiveness noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. 1 oppressing; harsh or cruel. 2 difficult to endure. 3 (of weather) close and sultry. Derivatives: oppressively adv. oppressiveness n. Etymology: F oppressif -ive f. med.L oppressivus (as OPPRESS)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Oppressive Op*press"ive, a. [Cf. F. oppressif.] 1. Unreasonably burdensome; unjustly severe, rigorous, or harsh; as, oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of service; an oppressive game law. --Macaulay. 2. Using oppression; tyrannical; as, oppressive authority or commands. 3. Heavy; overpowering; hard to be borne; as, oppressive grief or woe. To ease the soul of one oppressive weight. --Pope. -- Op*press"ive*ly, adv. -- Op*press"ive*ness, n.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

1. If you describe a society, its laws, or customs as oppressive, you think they treat people cruelly and unfairly. The new laws will be just as oppressive as those they replace. ...refugees from the oppressive regime. = repressive ADJ 2. If you describe the weather or the atmosphere in a room as oppressive, you mean that it is unpleasantly hot and damp. The oppressive afternoon heat had quite tired him out... = stifling ADJ 3. An oppressive situation makes you feel depressed and uncomfortable. ...the oppressive sadness that weighed upon him like a physical pain. ADJ: usu ADJ n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Burdensome, severe. 2. Heavy, overwhelming, overpowering. 3. Tyrannical, cruel, severe, hard, rigorous, inhuman, grinding, galling. 4. Close, uncomfortable.

Moby Thesaurus

Herculean, absolute, absolutist, absolutistic, agonizing, airless, annoying, arbitrary, arduous, aristocratic, arrogant, authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic, backbreaking, besetting, black, bleak, bossy, bothersome, breathless, breezeless, brutal, burdensome, close, crushing, cumbersome, cumbrous, demanding, depressant, depressing, depressive, despotic, dictatorial, discouraging, disheartening, dismal, dispiriting, distressing, dolorous, domineering, down, effortful, encumbering, exacting, exhausting, exigent, feudal, forced, grievous, grinding, grueling, hampering, hard-earned, hard-fought, harrowing, harsh, heavy, hefty, high-handed, humid, ill-ventilated, impedimental, impeding, impeditive, imperative, imperial, imperious, incumbent, intolerable, irksome, killing, labored, laborious, lordly, lumpish, magisterial, magistral, massive, masterful, miserable, monocratic, muggy, onerous, operose, overbearing, overburdensome, overpowering, overruling, overwhelming, painful, peremptory, plaguey, punishing, racking, repressive, severe, somber, sticky, stifling, strained, strenuous, strict, stuffy, suffocating, sultry, superincumbent, suppressive, taxing, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying, tyrannical, tyrannous, unbearable, uncomfortable, unendurable, unvented, unventilated, unwieldy, uphill, vexatious, wearing, wearisome, wearying, weighty, windless, wretched