depressing Hear it!

Variant of depress

depress Definition

de·press (dē pres′, di-)

transitive verb

  1. to press down; push or pull down; lower
  2. to lower in spirits; make gloomy; discourage; sadden
  3. to decrease the force or activity of; weaken
  4. to lower in value, price, or amount
  5. Obsolete to suppress
  6. Music to lower the pitch of

Etymology: ME depressen < OFr depresser < L depressus, pp. of deprimere, to press down, sink < de-, down + premere, to press

Related Forms:

depressing Synonyms

depressing

modif.

discouraging, disheartening, saddening; see dismal 1, sad 2.

depressing Usage Examples

Object

  • clutch: Can you hear the squeak when depressing the clutch pedal with the engine switched off?

Used with why or when

  • when: Heavens, but I was depressing when I took the pen in hand!

Infinitive complement

  • hear: As we left it was depressing to hear him described as ' Eric Clapton of the 21st century ' .