All 3 Uses of
oppress
in
The Age of Innocence
- And he felt himself oppressed by this creation of factitious purity, so cunningly manufactured by a conspiracy of mothers and aunts and grandmothers and long-dead ancestresses, because it was supposed to be what he wanted, what he had a right to, in order that he might exercise his lordly pleasure in smashing it like an image made of snow.†
Chpt 6
- He had no fear of being oppressed by them, for his artistic and intellectual life would go on, as it always had, outside the domestic circle; and within it there would be nothing small and stifling—coming back to his wife would never be like entering a stuffy room after a tramp in the open.†
Chpt 20 *
- She had grown tired of what people called "society"; New York was kind, it was almost oppressively hospitable; she should never forget the way in which it had welcomed her back; but after the first flush of novelty she had found herself, as she phrased it, too "different" to care for the things it cared about—and so she had decided to try Washington, where one was supposed to meet more varieties of people and of opinion.†
Chpt 24
Definition:
-
(oppress as in: oppressive government) to dominate harshly and unfairly; or to make sufferThe meaning of oppress depends upon its context. For example:
- "The authorities oppress political activists," or "The new nation oppressed Native Americans." -- to dominate harshly and unfairly
- "She is oppressed by excessive debt." - made to suffer