oppressive Definition
op·pres·sive (ə pres′iv)
adjective
- hard to put up with; causing great discomfort or fatigue
- cruelly overbearing; tyrannical
- weighing heavily on the mind, spirits, or senses; distressing
Etymology: ME oppressivus < L oppressus: see oppress
oppressive Related Forms
op·pres′·sively adverb
op·pres′·sive·ness noun
oppressive Synonyms
oppressive
modif.
Difficult to bear
burdensome, onerous, harsh, tyrannical; see autocratic 1, difficult 1, onerous, severe 2.Weighing on the senses or spirits
suffocating, stifling, confining, depressing; see close 5, dismal 1. See syn. study at onerous.
oppressive Usage Examples
Modifying Another Word
- increasingly: The rebel regime in Rhodesia is not only defying the Crown and imposing an increasingly oppressive dictatorship.
- almost: Either way, the game has an intense and almost oppressive atmosphere.
- quite: So there's a lot of people within both these families trying to escape the quite oppressive family ethos that they're living under.
- too: I found this to be entirely too oppressive for my tastes.
- so: Putting is no so oppressive; last child was born on Saturday morning and I was at work the Friday night.
- often: Britain has a history of being a tolerant country where persecuted people have fled from often oppressive regimes.
Adjective complement with noun phrase
find: But he was soon to find the lifestyle oppressive, despite the creature comforts.
Modifies a noun
- regime: I wish to spread word of the oppressive regime in my homeland.
- dictatorship: There has not been a noticeable increase in the number of oppressive dictatorships around the world.
- ruler: Asia has had its full share of cruel oppressive rulers, in whose realms there was much of what the West today calls injustice.
- heat: To avoid the oppressive heat of the Summer, they often go to nearby cooler villages where they have second homes.
- ideology: The learning turn in education and training: liberatory paradigm or oppressive ideology?
- atmosphere: An oppressive atmosphere crowded in on the narrow, swaying cage around us.
Used with adjective complement
- become: But my mind was in a turmoil, and the nights became more oppressive than ever.
- seem: This was a small room around nine by twelve feet and seemed oppressive.
- feel: Tuesday 7th February 2006 A deadline could feel oppressive.
- find: I don't see it as a bad thing that people want to get away from a place that they find oppressive.
- appear: This first section of the cave appears very oppressive to some.
- remain: In much of the world states remain oppressive, secretive and violent.
Preposition: in
way: The current situation in South Africa is oppressive in some ways, but by no means all.
Browse dictionary entries near oppressive
- ‹ oppression
- ‹ oppressed
- ‹ oppress
- ‹ opposition
- ‹ oppositely
- ‹ opposite number
- ‹ opposite
- ‹ opposing
- ‹ opposed
- ‹ oppose
- oppressively ›
- opprobrious ›
- opprobrium ›
- oppugn ›
- oppugnant ›
- Ops ›
- opsin ›
- -opsis ›
- opsonic index ›
- opsonify ›

