oppressiveop‧pres‧sive /əˈpresɪv/ ●○○ adjective 
an oppressive military regime2weather that is oppressive is unpleasantly hot with no movement of air: the oppressive heat of the afternoon3a situation that is oppressive makes you unhappy, worried, or uncomfortable: an oppressive silence an oppressive atmosphere—oppressively adverb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- A poor, uneducated people do not have the will power or knowledge to challenge an oppressive government.
- an oppressive dictatorship
- As the sun climbed higher in the sky, the heat grew gradually more oppressive.
- Despite the oppressive heat, more than 1,000 people came to the celebration.
- New, oppressive laws were brought in to restrict the freedom of the press.
- Summers in Houston can be oppressive.
- the oppressive rule of Ceaucescu in Romania
- The country is in the grip of an extremely oppressive regime.
- The silence in the meeting was becoming oppressive.
- Boundaries are most rigid, their outline obvious and often oppressive.
- He could think of nothing but the oppressive bulk in the seat next to him.
- His principles were narrow and his realization of them oppressive.
- Identification with the community is even consistent with hostility to its laws, if those are thought to be oppressive or unfair.
- Karlin relates the oppressive anti-Semitism his forebears endured in a vague, almost elliptical style with dips into the stream of consciousness.
- The thesis is to show the tragic consequences of parents who are oppressive and inflexible in their relationship with their children.
- They had all the evidence that a less oppressive environment was not effective.
Longman Language Activatorto completely control the people in a country
to use force to control large groups of people - use this especially about governments and people in authority: · Since colonial times, black people in South Africa have been oppressed by the white minority.· Marxists have studied the role of the family in oppressing women.
oppressive laws or governments control people so tightly that they have very little freedom left: · The country is in the grip of an extremely oppressive regime.· New, oppressive laws were brought in to restrict the freedom of the press.
to control people by not allowing them to use their natural abilities, intelligence, or energy to improve their situation: be kept down: · The population is kept down by poverty and fear of the secret police.keep somebody down: · In Marlowe's opinion, religion was invented in order to keep people down.
to control people: · It's a cruel and vicious regime that represses all opposition.· For years the inhabitants of these islands have been repressed by the colonizers.
a government that controls people's lives too much a government in which one person or group has total power and uses it unfairly and cruelly: · In 1971, the country's 10 year military dictatorship came to an end.· Ethiopia's dictatorship was toppled by Eritrean and Ethiopian rebels.· How do we explain the rise in European dictatorship in the 1930s?
a country where the police and other people who work for the government have too much power and control people's lives too much: · The country is a police state and the media is controlled by the government.· "Do you want a free society or a police state?" Stark asked the crowd of about 2,000 people.· The Home Secretary denied that the introduction of identity cards would lead to a police state.
a government run by a small group of army officers who have not been elected but have taken power by force: · All the opponents of the junta have been murdered or imprisoned.military junta: · The country was ruled by a military junta from 1974 until 1982.
written a situation in which a government, especially an illegal one, rules unfairly and cruelly: · Any political system that refuses to allow people to protest becomes a tyranny.· the extraordinary struggle against tyranny in South Africa
a totalitarian country or system of government is one in which the government controls every part of people's lives and there is no freedom: · A totalitarian state must maintain complete control of the press.· The country held its first elections after 40 years of totalitarian rule.· The minister called the secret police `a product and a tool of the old totalitarian regime'.
an oppressive government treats people in a cruel way, using military force to prevent any opposition: · the oppressive rule of Ceaucescu in Romania· A poor, uneducated people does not have the willpower or knowledge to challenge an oppressive government.
room/place/weather · The weather's been very hot lately.· I make a lot of salads during hot weather.· a hot summer's day· The Gobi desert is one of the hottest places on earth.it's hot · It's hot in here. Isn't the air conditioner working?· It was much too hot in his office to do any work.· It's going to be a hot, sunny day.
high temperatures caused by hot weather, especially when this makes you feel uncomfortable in a room or outdoors: · Don't leave food sitting out in the heat.· the heat and dryness of an Arizona summer the heat of the day: · Avoid running or other vigorous exercise during the heat of the day.
spoken very hot: · It was a boiling hot day in August.it's boiling/boiling hot: · Leave the door open, it's boiling in here.
American, especially spoken very hot and uncomfortable: · a broiling summer daybroiling heat: · the incredible broiling heat of a Mississippi summerbroiling sun: · Troops stood at attention under a broiling noon sun.
weather that is baking or baking hot is very hot and dry: · The weather was baking hot and conditions at the camp became unbearable.it's baking/baking hot: · It's baking in here -- I need a drink.
especially written weather that is sweltering is very hot and makes you feel wet and uncomfortable: · Everyone headed for the beach on that sweltering summer afternoon.sweltering heat: · The soldiers marched on in the sweltering heat.
a room or enclosed space that is stifling or stifling hot is very hot and is difficult to breathe in: · The room was stifling hot, and full of flies.· The subway stations are stifling, and reek of urine.stifling heat: · Helen sat uncomfortably in the stifling heat of the railway carriage.
weather that is muggy or humid makes you feel uncomfortable because the air feels wet, warm, and heavy: · In June the weather was often muggy in the evenings and it was difficult to get to sleep.· The climate stays hot and humid all summer long.it's muggy/humid: · It's been really muggy the last few days, so we haven't done much.
weather or heat that is oppressive is very hot and unpleasant, especially because it feels as if there is not enough air to breathe: · As the sun climbed higher in the sky, the heat grew gradually more oppressive.oppressive heat: · Despite the oppressive heat, more than 1,000 people came to the celebration.
a room or enclosed space that is like an oven is extremely hot and uncomfortable: · The heat of the day made the gymnasium feel like an oven.it's like an oven: · It's like an oven in here. Let's open some windows.
a period of unusually hot weather: · There was a heatwave during the first part of July.· A long summer heatwave had turned the river into a weak trickle of water.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY the oppressive heat of the afternoonCOLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
1powerful, cruel, and unfair: the oppressive heat of the afternoon (=powerful, cruel, and unfair)· That country was held fast in the grip of an oppressive regime.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB· Writers have produced extraordinary work in conditions more oppressive than mine.· However, nothing can be crueller and more oppressive than one without love.· The heat, which had declined a little at the coming of the rains, grew more oppressive than ever.· It was even dimmer here, and more oppressive.
NOUN· My first impression was of oppressive heat, but then I have spent my life mainly on the cool side of temperate.· The oppressive heat and humidity make that smell stronger.· An opposite movement occurs with the elements of oppressive heat and smell on that same momentous fourth floor.· This shop is surely an outpost of hell, with its oppressive heat and dense clouds of smoke.
· Throughout 1815 MiloÜ maintained that his quarrel was with the oppressive regime of Süleiman Pasha and not with the sultan.· Tired of this paternalistic and oppressive regime, Beida students aired their complaints over several evenings in mid-December.
an oppressive military regime2weather that is oppressive is unpleasantly hot with no movement of air: the oppressive heat of the afternoon3a situation that is oppressive makes you unhappy, worried, or uncomfortable: an oppressive silence an oppressive atmosphere—oppressively adverb