press

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /pɹɛs/

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• Rhymes: -ɛs

Middle English presse (“throng, crowd, clothespress”), partially from Old English press (“clothespress”) (from Medieval Latin pressa) and partially 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. (countable) A device used to apply pressure to an item.

   a flower press

2. (countable) A printing machine.

   Stop the presses!

3. (uncountable) A collective term for 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. B. Maxwell, chapter 22, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

4. (countable) A publisher.
5. (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 752825175, page 035:

     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, […].

6. (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, p.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 […].

7. (countable, wagering) 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.

8. (countable) Pure, unfermented grape juice.

   I would like some Concord press with my meal tonight.

9. A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy.
   • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare

     I have misused the king's press.

10. (obsolete) A crowd.

    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Luke 19:3:

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

• (storage space): See closet, cupboard, pantry
• (printing machine): printing press
• (conscripting force): press-gang

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. (transitive, intransitive) to exert weight or force against, to act upon with force or weight
2. (transitive) to compress, squeeze

   to press fruit for the purpose of extracting the juice

3. (transitive) to clasp, hold in an embrace; to hug

   She took her son, and press'd

   The illustrious infant to her fragrant breast (Dryden, Illiad, VI. 178.)

4. (transitive) to reduce to a particular shape or form by pressure, especially flatten or smooth

   to press cloth with an iron

   to press a hat

5. (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.
6. (transitive) to drive or thrust by pressure, to force in a certain direction

   to press a crowd back

7. (transitive, obsolete) 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. (Fletcher, Pilgrim, I. 2.)

8. (transitive) to force to a certain end or result; to urge strongly, impel
   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], chapter VIII, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume II, London: Printed for Benj[amin] Motte, […], OCLC 995220039, 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.

9. To try to force (something upon someone); to urge or inculcate.

   to press the Bible on an audience

   • Dryden

     He pressed a letter upon me within this hour.

   • Addison

     Be sure to press upon him every motive.

10. (transitive) to hasten, urge onward

    to press a horse in a race

11. (transitive) to urge, beseech, entreat

    God heard their prayers, wherein they earnestly pressed him for the honor of his great name. (Winthrop, Hist. New England, II. 35)

12. (transitive) to lay stress upon, emphasize

    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. (M. Arnold, Literature and Dogma, Pref.)

13. (transitive, intransitive) to throng, crowd
14. (transitive, obsolete) to print
15. To force into service, particularly into naval service.
    • Dryden

      To peaceful peasant to the wars is pressed.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:press.

• (drive, thrust): thring, thrutch
• (compress, squeeze): thring, thrutch; see also Thesaurus:compress
• (throng, crowd): thring, thrutch; see also Thesaurus:assemble

• press charges
• press on

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

• Entry for the imperfect and past participle in Webster's dictionary
• press in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• “press”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

• ERSPs, RESPs, SERPs

press

1. Imperative singular 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

• apelsinpress
• bänkpress
• benpress
• blompress
• brevpress
• pressa
• pressbyrå
• pressfrihet
• pressning
• tryckpress