Definition of "oppress" []

• To keep down by severe and unjust use of force or authority: a people who were oppressed by tyranny. (verb-transitive)
• To weigh heavily on: Poverty oppresses the spirit. (verb-transitive)
• Obsolete To overwhelm or crush. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Tell him that it's been a way for some people to control other people if he knows the word oppress, I'd say oppress -- a way for some people to oppress other people."
• "To oppress is bad enough, but to love to do so is much worse."
• "It is said that the oppressor shall be depress though by people praised, and that the oppress is at rest though by people blamed."