Join free

Press

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

press¹

  • /pɹɛs/ UK, US
  • /pɹes/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /pɾɛs/ Scotland, Wales
  • /pɻɛs/ Northern Ireland

Rhymes with -ɛs

Where it comes from

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”). Chiefly displaced native Middle English thring (“press, crowd, throng”) (from Old English þring (“a press, crowd, anything that presses or confines”)).

see English thring

noun presses

  1. countable, uncountable An instance of applying pressure; an instance of pressing. Connecting to the service is almost idiot proof and takes just a few button presses.
  2. countable A device used to apply pressure to an item. a flower press
  3. uncountable A crowd. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.
  4. countable A printing machine. Stop the presses!
  5. collective, uncountable The print-based media (both the people and the newspapers). according to a member of the press
  6. countable A publisher.
  7. countable, especially An enclosed storage space (e.g. closet, cupboard). Put the cups in the press.
  8. countable An exercise in which weight is forced away from the body by extension of the arms or legs. This is the fourth set of benchpresses. There will be five more; then there will be five sets of presses on an inclined bench[…].
  9. countable 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.
  10. countable Pure, unfermented grape juice. I would like some Concord press with my meal tonight.
  11. countable, uncountable A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy. I have misused the king's press.
  12. countable, uncountable In personology, any environmental factor that arouses a need in the individual. The environmental comfort category is illustrative of cases in which there are low environmental presses matched against a number of personal competences.

press²

  • /pɹɛs/ UK, US
  • /pɹes/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /pɾɛs/ Scotland, Wales
  • /pɻɛs/ Northern Ireland

Rhymes with -ɛs

Where it comes from

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 presses · pressing · pressed · prest

  1. ambitransitive To exert weight or force against, to act upon with force or weight; to exert pressure upon.
  2. transitive To activate a button or key by exerting a downward or forward force on it, and then releasing it.
  3. transitive To compress, squeeze. to press fruit for the purpose of extracting the juice
  4. transitive To clasp, hold in an embrace. With tears and ſmiles ſhe took her ſon, and preſs'd / Th' illuſtrious infant to her fragrant breaſt.
  5. transitive To reduce to a particular shape or form by pressure, especially flatten or smooth. to press cloth with a clothes-iron
  6. transitive 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. to press a crowd back
  8. transitive To force weight away from the body by extending the arms or legs. Start with two weights on the floor. Grab one with your right hand, then curl or clean it to your shoulder, then press it overhead.
  9. obsolete, transitive 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.
  10. transitive To force to a certain end or result; to urge strongly. The two gentlemen who conducted me to the island were pressed by their private affairs to return in three days.
  11. To try to force (something upon someone). to press the Bible on an audience
  12. transitive To hasten, urge onward. to press a horse in a race
  13. transitive To urge, beseech, entreat. God heard their prayers, wherein they earnestly pressed him for the honor of his great name.
  14. transitive To lay stress upon. 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.
  15. ambitransitive To throng, crowd.
  16. obsolete, transitive To print.
  17. To force into service, particularly into naval service. The peaceful peasant to the wars is press'd.

Press³

proper noun

  1. A surname.

Talk about this word