Oppressive

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  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] -- {Op*press"ive*ly}, adv. --
        {Op*press"ive*ness}, n.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  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}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  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