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Definition of "repress" []

  • To hold back by an act of volition: couldn't repress a smirk. (verb-transitive)
  • To put down by force, usually before total control has been lost; quell: repress a rebellion. (verb-transitive)
  • Psychology To exclude (painful or disturbing memories, for example) automatically or unconsciously from the conscious mind. (verb-transitive)
  • Biology To block (transcription of a gene) by combination of a protein to an operator gene. (verb-transitive)
  • To take repressive action. (verb-intransitive)

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.

Use "repress" in a sentence
  • "Inebriation, if not the wisest way to console and repress, is at least an opportune way to live with the knowledge that it is impossible to win affection."
  • "Selling ideology not to inspire, but to repress is his main game, and he is quite good at it."
  • "The groans, impossible to repress, that issued through the lips of"