Oppressive \Op*press"ive\, a. [Cf. F. oppressif.]
1. Unreasonably burdensome; unjustly severe, rigorous, or
harsh; as, oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of
service; an oppressive game law. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
2. Using oppression; tyrannical; as, oppressive authority or
commands.
[1913 Webster]
3. Heavy; overpowering; hard to be borne; creating a sense of
heavy burden; as, oppressive grief or woe; oppressive heat
or humidity; an oppressive workload.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
To ease the soul of one oppressive weight. --Pope.
[1913 Webster] --
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
oppressive
adj 1: weighing heavily on the senses or spirit; "the atmosphere
was oppressive"; "oppressive sorrows"
2: marked by unjust severity or arbitrary behavior; "the
oppressive government"; "oppressive laws"; "a tyrannical
parent"; "tyrannous disregard of human rights" [syn: tyrannical,
tyrannous]
WordNet (r) 2.0
129 Moby Thesaurus words for "oppressive":
Herculean, absolute, absolutist, absolutistic, agonizing, airless,
annoying, arbitrary, arduous, aristocratic, arrogant,
authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic, backbreaking, besetting,
black, bleak, bossy, bothersome, breathless, breezeless, brutal,
burdensome, close, crushing, cumbersome, cumbrous, demanding,
depressant, depressing, depressive, despotic, dictatorial,
discouraging, disheartening, dismal, dispiriting, distressing,
dolorous, domineering, down, effortful, encumbering, exacting,
exhausting, exigent, feudal, forced, grievous, grinding, grueling,
hampering, hard-earned, hard-fought, harrowing, harsh, heavy,
hefty, high-handed, humid, ill-ventilated, impedimental, impeding,
impeditive, imperative, imperial, imperious, incumbent,
intolerable, irksome, killing, labored, laborious, lordly, lumpish,
magisterial, magistral, massive, masterful, miserable, monocratic,
muggy, onerous, operose, overbearing, overburdensome, overpowering,
overruling, overwhelming, painful, peremptory, plaguey, punishing,
racking, repressive, severe, somber, sticky, stifling, strained,
strenuous, strict, stuffy, suffocating, sultry, superincumbent,
suppressive, taxing, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying,
tyrannical, tyrannous, unbearable, uncomfortable, unendurable,
unvented, unventilated, unwieldy, uphill, vexatious, wearing,
wearisome, wearying, weighty, windless, wretched
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
tyrannical, tyrannous
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