Op*pres"sion (?), n. [F., fr. L. oppressio.]

1. The act of oppressing, or state of being oppressed.

2. That which oppresses; a hardship or injustice; cruelty; severity; tyranny. "The multitude of oppressions." Job xxxv. 9.

3. A sense of heaviness or obstruction in the body or mind; depression; dullness; lassitude; as, an oppression of spirits; an oppression of the lungs.

There gentlee Sleep
First found me, and with soft oppression seized
My drowsed sense.

4. Ravishment; rape. [Obs.] Chaucer.

• the act of oppressing, or the state of being oppressed
       
• The oppression of the poor by the aristocracy was one cause of the French Revolution
  
• a feeling of being oppressed
       
• Our oppression was lifted by the reappearance of the sun