Crossword Dictionary
DEPRESS
depress, deject, depressed, depresses, depressing - v
to make sad
Synonyms
bum (out), burden, dash, deject, get down, oppress, sadden, weigh down
Examples
Locally applied they depress the terminations of sensory nerves, and may thereby lessen pain.
This capacity he never abused so as to burden his conscience or depress his spirits.
Now, if politics depress you and, after four years, you are still not over your ex-boyfriend, then you might be emo.
Etymology
late 14c., "put down by force, conquer," a sense now obsolete, from Old French depresser "to press down, lower," from Late Latin depressare, frequentative of Latin deprimere "press down," from de "down" (see de-) + premere "to press, hold fast, cover, crowd, compress" (from PIE root *per- (4) "to strike").
Meaning "push down physically, press or move downward" is from early 15c.; that of "deject, make gloomy, lower in feeling" is from 1620s; economic sense of "lower in value" is from 1878.