Open main menu
Wiktionary

press

Contents

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

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

Etymology 1Edit

Middle English presse (“throng, crowd, clothespress”), partially from Old English press (“clothespress”) (from Medieval Latin pressa) and partially 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”)).

NounEdit

press (countable and uncountable, plural presses)

  1. (countable) A device used to apply pressure to an item.
    a flower press
  2. (countable) A printing machine.
    Stop the presses!
  3. (uncountable) A collective term for the print-based media (both the people and the newspapers).
    according to a member of the press;  This article appeared in the press.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      From another point of view, it was a place without a soul. The well-to-do had hearts of stone; the rich were brutally bumptious; the Press, the Municipality, all the public men, were ridiculously, vaingloriously self-satisfied.
    • 2013 August 10, Lexington, “Keeping the mighty honest”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848:
      British journalists shun complete respectability, feeling a duty to be ready to savage the mighty, or rummage through their bins. Elsewhere in Europe, government contracts and subsidies ensure that press barons will only defy the mighty so far.
  4. (countable) A publisher.
  5. (countable, especially in Ireland and Scotland) An enclosed storage space (e.g. closet, cupboard).
    Put the cups in the press.  Put the ironing in the linen press.
    • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175, page 035:
      But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶ […] The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge, […].
  6. (countable, weightlifting) An exercise in which weight is forced away from the body by extension of the arms or legs.
    • 1974, Charles Gaines & George Butler, Pumping Iron: The Art and Sport of Bodybuilding, p.22:
      This is the fourth set of benchpresses. There will be five more; then there will be five sets of presses on an inclined bench […].
  7. (countable, wagering) 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.
    He can even the match with a press.
  8. (countable) Pure, unfermented grape juice.
    I would like some Concord press with my meal tonight.
  9. A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy.
  10. (obsolete) A crowd.
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
publisher — see publisher

Etymology 2Edit

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”).

VerbEdit

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

  1. (transitive, intransitive) to exert weight or force against, to act upon with force or weight
  2. (transitive) to compress, squeeze
    to press fruit for the purpose of extracting the juice
  3. (transitive) to clasp, hold in an embrace; to hug
    She took her son, and press'd
    The illustrious infant to her fragrant breast (Dryden, Illiad, VI. 178.)
  4. (transitive) to reduce to a particular shape or form by pressure, especially flatten or smooth
    to press cloth with an iron
    to press a hat
  5. (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.
  6. (transitive) to drive or thrust by pressure, to force in a certain direction
    to press a crowd back
  7. (transitive, obsolete) to weigh upon, oppress, trouble
    He turns from us;
    Alas, he weeps too! Something presses him
    He would reveal, but dare not.-Sir, be comforted. (Fletcher, Pilgrim, I. 2.)
  8. (transitive) to force to a certain end or result; to urge strongly, impel
    • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], chapter VIII, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: Printed for Benj[amin] Motte, […], OCLC 995220039, part III (A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdribb, Luggnagg, and Japan):
      The two gentlemen who conducted me to the island were pressed by their private affairs to return in three days.
  9. To try to force (something upon someone); to urge or inculcate.
    to press the Bible on an audience
    • Dryden
      He pressed a letter upon me within this hour.
    • Addison
      Be sure to press upon him every motive.
  10. (transitive) to hasten, urge onward
    to press a horse in a race
  11. (transitive) to urge, beseech, entreat
    God heard their prayers, wherein they earnestly pressed him for the honor of his great name. (Winthrop, Hist. New England, II. 35)
  12. (transitive) to lay stress upon, emphasize
    If we read but a very little, we naturally want to press it all; if we read a great deal, we are willing not to press the whole of what we read, and we learn what ought to be pressed and what not. (M. Arnold, Literature and Dogma, Pref.)
  13. (transitive, intransitive) to throng, crowd
  14. (transitive, obsolete) to print
  15. To force into service, particularly into naval service.
    • Dryden
      To peaceful peasant to the wars is pressed.
QuotationsEdit
SynonymsEdit
Derived termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
to indicate that a story is being printed
to press — see bear
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

AnagramsEdit

GermanEdit

VerbEdit

press

  1. Imperative singular of pressen.
  2. (colloquial) First-person singular present of pressen.

Norwegian BokmålEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From the verb presse

NounEdit

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

  1. pressure
  2. (weightlifting) a press
Related termsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

VerbEdit

press

  1. imperative of presse

ReferencesEdit

Norwegian NynorskEdit

EtymologyEdit

From the verb presse

NounEdit

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

  1. pressure
  2. (weightlifting) a press

Related termsEdit

ReferencesEdit

SpanishEdit

NounEdit

press m (plural press)

  1. press (exercise)

SwedishEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

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

DeclensionEdit

Declension of press 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative press pressen pressar pressarna
Genitive press pressens pressars pressarnas

Related termsEdit

Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=press&oldid=52537649"