• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /pɹɛs/

• Audio (UK):

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• Rhymes: -ɛs

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”)).

press (countable and uncountable, plural presses)

1. An instance of applying pressure; an instance of pressing.
   • 2004 10, “Maximum PC”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), page 25:

     Connecting to the service is almost idiot proof and takes just a few button presses.

   • 2020 August 7, Jonathan Liew, “Phil Foden stars to offer Manchester City glimpse of multiple futures”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     a slaloming winger putting lumpen defenders on their backsides, or even a sneaky centre-forward, using his boundless energy to lead the press and force mistakes.

2. (countable) A device used to apply pressure to an item.

   a flower press

3. (uncountable) A crowd.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 19:3:

     And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.

   • 1962, Olivia Manning, The Spoilt City; republished as The Balkan Trilogy, 1990, →ISBN, page 327:

     The press in the square grew. Something would happen now.

   • 2015 March 10, Tim Banks, “Chanel Fall 2015 Ready-to-Wear Collection”, in Vogue:

     Imagine the press of humanity in a crowded Parisian brasserie, circa the era when Lagerfeld would have been patronizing such joints.

4. (countable) A printing machine.

   Synonym: printing press

   Stop the presses!

   • 1972, Carol A. Nemeyer, Scholarly Reprint Publishing in the United States, New York, N.Y.: R. R. Bowker Co., →ISBN, page 8:

     That books are pouring off the world’s presses at unprecedented rates is a fact often alluded to as a flood that is inundating libraries and the book trades.

5. (uncountable, collective) 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[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

6. (countable) A publisher.
7. (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:

     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, […].

8. (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, page 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 […].

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.

   He can even the match with a press.

   • 2012, Gary McCord, Golf For Dummies:

     The way a press works is, say you're two down after six holes; you can then start another bet (in effect another match) from the seventh hole, for the same amount, starting all square on the seventh tee.

   • 2014, Nicolae Sfetcu, Sports Betting, page 181:

     When a side is two or more points down in the match, they may request a press.

10. (countable) Pure, unfermented grape juice.

    I would like some Concord press with my meal tonight.

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

    Synonym: press-gang

    • c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Fourth, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

      I have misused the king's press.

12. (psychology) In personology, any environmental factor that arouses a need in the individual.
    • 2009, Allison E. Smith, Ageing in Urban Neighbourhoods, page 88:

      The environmental comfort category is illustrative of cases in which there are low environmental presses matched against a number of personal competences.

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

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”).

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

   to press fruit for the purpose of extracting the juice

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

   Synonym: hug

   • a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Last Parting of Hector and Andromache. From the Sixth Book of the Iliad.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 456:

     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

   to press a hat

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

   to press a crowd back

8. (transitive, obsolete) To weigh upon, oppress, trouble.
   • c. 1621, John Fletcher, The Pilgrim, act I, scene ii:

     He turns from us; / Alas, he weeps too! Something presses him / He would reveal, but dare not. Sir, be comforted.

9. (transitive) To force to a certain end or result; to urge strongly.

   Synonym: impel

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, 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.

10. To try to force (something upon someone).

    Synonyms: urge, inculcate

    to press the Bible on an audience

    • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, Act II, page 27:

      He press'd a letter upon me within this hour.

    • 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1:

      Be sure to press upon him every motive.

11. (transitive) To hasten, urge onward.

    to press a horse in a race

12. (transitive) To urge, beseech, entreat.
    • 1825, John Winthrop, The History of New England, volume II, page 29:

      God heard their prayers, wherein they earnestly pressed him for the honor of his great name.

13. (transitive) To lay stress upon.

    Synonym: emphasize

    • 1873, Matthew Arnold, “preface”, in Literature and Dogma:

      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.

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

    • 1697, Virgil, “The First Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

      The peaceful peasant to the wars is press'd.

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

• 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.

• ERSPs, RESPs, SERPs, Spers

press

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

From the verb presse.

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

1. pressure
2. (weightlifting) a press

• trykk

press

1. imperative of presse

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

From the verb presse.

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

1. pressure
2. (weightlifting) a press

• trykk

• “press” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

press m (plural press)

1. press (exercise)

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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

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