də̇ˈpres, dēˈ- transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-es )
Etymology: Middle English depressen, from Middle French depresser, from Latin depressus, past participle of deprimere to press down, from de- + -primere (from premere to press) — more at press
1. : to put down or overcome forcibly : crush , subjugate
2. : to press down
depress a typewriter key
: lower: as
a. : to cause to sink, fall, or assume a lower level, position, point, situation, or attitude
depressed the mounted gun
depressed areas below sea level
where the highway goes through cities you will find, perhaps, a depressed express street … a bridge overhead — William Carter
raise or depress the roadbed at the crossing of a highway — B.N.Cardozo
b. : to lessen, diminish, impoverish, or depreciate the activity, strength, level, yield, or significance of
confederates in Canada supplied cash for buying gold, shipping it to England and selling it in order to depress Federal currency values — C.H.Coleman
it has tended to depress the culture of the minority below the point at which a full understanding of poetry becomes possible — C.D.Lewis
able to depress irritability of the heart muscle by the use of such a drug as procaine
any number of factors can depress germination in plants
an injection to depress the excretion
c. : to lower in spirit or mood : press down into dejection : make sad or downcast : discourage , dispirit
the mere volume of work was enough to crush the most diligent of rulers and depress the most vital — John Buchan
d. : to lessen or lower in value, especially market value ; also : to lower in marketability
e. mathematics : to lower (as an equation) in degree
3. : to cause (certain ore or gangue minerals) to sink while other minerals float — compare flotation 3
Synonyms:
oppress , weigh ( down ), weigh ( on ), or weigh ( upon ): depress may stress the fact of lowering but does not stress the cause or agency involved. In reference to persons and their feelings it stresses dejection and discouragement
she had been depressed by the failing trade of the shop — Arnold Bennett
war had blighted his past, depressed his present and clouded his future with grave doubts — E.T.Weir
oppress stresses the fact of a weight or burden calculated to lower but does not stress the effect
the butler, oppressed by the heat of the weather — G.B.Shaw
the dismaying sense of it [the compulsion of a war period] … oppressed the mind — J.G.Cozzens
weigh ( down ), weigh ( on ), and weigh ( upon ) are used to cover in-between situations; they suggest continuing concern with an urgent oppressive matter calculated to depress
I know too well my own inefficiency; it has weighed on me from youth — Havelock Ellis
Walter's mind had cleared itself of the depression which had weighed on him so heavily — T.B.Costain