Dictionary Definition
oppressive adj
1 weighing heavily on the senses or spirit; "the
atmosphere was oppressive"; "oppressive sorrows"
2 marked by unjust severity or arbitrary
behavior; "the oppressive government"; "oppressive laws"; "a
tyrannical parent"; "tyrannous disregard of human rights" [syn:
tyrannical, tyrannous]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Adjective
- Burdensome or
difficult to bear.
- the oppressive tax laws made it difficult to start a small company
- Tyrannical or
exercising unjust power.
- the oppressive land-owners kept a grip on the labourers
- Weighing heavily on the spirit.
- will this oppressive weather never end?
Italian
Adjective
oppressive- Feminine plural form of oppressivo
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Herculean, absolute, absolutist, absolutistic, agonizing, airless, annoying, arbitrary, arduous, aristocratic, arrogant, authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic, backbreaking, besetting, black, bleak, bossy, bothersome, breathless, breezeless, brutal, burdensome, close, crushing, cumbersome, cumbrous, demanding, depressant, depressing, depressive, despotic, dictatorial, discouraging, disheartening, dismal, dispiriting, distressing, dolorous, domineering, down, effortful, encumbering, exacting, exhausting, exigent, feudal, forced, grievous, grinding, grueling, hampering, hard-earned,
hard-fought, harrowing, harsh, heavy, hefty, high-handed, humid, ill-ventilated, impedimental, impeding, impeditive, imperative, imperial, imperious, incumbent, intolerable, irksome, killing, labored, laborious, lordly, lumpish, magisterial, magistral, massive, masterful, miserable, monocratic, muggy, onerous, operose, overbearing, overburdensome, overpowering, overruling, overwhelming, painful, peremptory, plaguey, punishing, racking, repressive, severe, somber, sticky, stifling, strained, strenuous, strict, stuffy, suffocating, sultry, superincumbent, suppressive, taxing, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying, tyrannical, tyrannous, unbearable, uncomfortable, unendurable, unvented, unventilated, unwieldy, uphill, vexatious, wearing, wearisome, wearying, weighty, windless, wretched