press

English Online Dictionary. What means press‎? What does press mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /pɹɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs

Etymology 1

From Middle English presse (“throng, crowd, clothespress”), partially from Old English press (“clothespress”) (from Medieval Latin pressa) and from Old French presse (Modern French presse) from Old French presser (“to press”), from Latin pressāre, from pressus, past participle of premere (“to press”). Displaced native Middle English thring (“press, crowd, throng”) (from Old English þring (“a press, crowd, anything that presses or confines”)).

Noun

press (countable and uncountable, plural presses)

1. An instance of applying pressure; an instance of pressing.
2. (countable) A device used to apply pressure to an item.

3. (uncountable) A crowd.
4. (countable) A printing machine.

   Synonym: printing press
5. (uncountable, collective) The print-based media (both the people and the newspapers).
6. (countable) A publisher.
7. (countable, especially in Ireland and Scotland) An enclosed storage space (e.g. closet, cupboard).
8. (countable, weightlifting) An exercise in which weight is forced away from the body by extension of the arms or legs.
9. (countable, golf, gambling) An additional bet in a golf match that duplicates an existing (usually losing) wager in value, but begins even at the time of the bet.
10. (countable) Pure, unfermented grape juice.

11. A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy.

    Synonym: press-gang
12. (psychology) In personology, any environmental factor that arouses a need in the individual.

Synonyms

• (storage space): See closet, cupboard, pantry

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English pressen (“to crowd, thring, press”), from Old French presser (“to press”) (Modern French presser) from Latin pressāre, from pressus, past participle of premere "to press". Displaced native Middle English thringen (“to press, crowd, throng”) (from Old English þringan (“to press, crowd”)), Middle English thrasten (“to press, force, urge”) (from Old English þrǣstan (“to press, force”)), Old English þryscan (“to press”), Old English þȳwan (“to press, impress”).

Verb

press (third-person singular simple present presses, present participle pressing, simple past and past participle pressed or prest)

1. (ambitransitive) To exert weight or force against, to act upon with force or weight; to exert pressure upon.
2. (transitive, mechanics, electronics) To activate a button or key by exerting a downward or forward force on it, and then releasing it.

   Synonyms: strike, hit, depress

3. (transitive) To compress, squeeze.

   Synonyms: thring, thrutch; see also Thesaurus:compress

4. (transitive) To clasp, hold in an embrace.

   Synonym: hug
5. (transitive) To reduce to a particular shape or form by pressure, especially flatten or smooth.

6. (transitive, sewing) To flatten a selected area of fabric using an iron with an up-and-down, not sliding, motion, so as to avoid disturbing adjacent areas.
7. (transitive) To drive or thrust by pressure, to force in a certain direction.

   Synonyms: thring, thrutch

8. (transitive, obsolete) To weigh upon, oppress, trouble.
9. (transitive) To force to a certain end or result; to urge strongly.

   Synonym: impel
10. To try to force (something upon someone).

    Synonyms: urge, inculcate
11. (transitive) To hasten, urge onward.

12. (transitive) To urge, beseech, entreat.
13. (transitive) To lay stress upon.

    Synonym: emphasize
14. (ambitransitive) To throng, crowd.

    Synonyms: thring, thrutch; see also Thesaurus:assemble

15. (transitive, obsolete) To print.
16. To force into service, particularly into naval service.

    Synonym: press-gang

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• hot press (baking, laundry)
• hot off the press (printing)
• press down

References

• Entry for the imperfect and past participle in Webster's dictionary
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “press”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “press”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

• ERSPs, RESPs, SERPs, Spers

German

Verb

press

1. singular imperative of pressen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of pressen

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From the verb presse.

Noun

press n (definite singular presset, indefinite plural press, definite plural pressa or pressene)

1. pressure
2. (weightlifting) a press

Related terms

• trykk

Etymology 2

Verb

press

1. imperative of presse

References

• “press” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “press_1” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From the verb presse.

Noun

press n (definite singular presset, indefinite plural press, definite plural pressa)

1. pressure
2. (weightlifting) a press

Related terms

• trykk

References

• “press” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Spanish

Noun

press m (plural press)

1. press (exercise)

Swedish

Pronunciation

Noun

press c

1. a press; a tool that applies pressure (to make things flat, to make juice)
2. a (printing) press

   stoppa pressarna

   stop the presses

3. the press (newspapers, journalism as a branch of society)
4. (mental) pressure
5. a muscle exercise that applies pressure

Declension

Related terms

Further reading

• press in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker
• press in Elof Hellquist, Svensk etymologisk ordbok (1st ed., 1922)