- (v.i.) To exert pressure; to bear heavily; to push, crowd or urge with steady force.
- (v.) To exercise very powerful or irresistible influence upon or over; to constrain; to force; to compel.
- (n.) Specifically, a printing press.
- (n.) The art or business of printing and publishing; hence, printed publications, taken collectively, more especially newspapers or the persons employed in writing for them; as, a free press is a blessing, a licentious press is a curse.
- (v.) To squeeze, in order to extract the juice or contents of; to squeeze out or express, from something.
- (v.) To drive with violence; to hurry; to urge on; to ply hard; as, to press a horse in a race.
- (v.) To urge or act upon, with force, as weight; to act upon by pushing or thrusting, in distinction from pulling; to crowd or compel by a gradual and continued exertion; to bear upon; to squeeze; to compress; as, we press the ground with the feet when we walk; we press the couch on which we repose; we press substances with the hands, fingers or arms; we are pressed in a crowd.
- (n.) Urgent demands of business or affairs; urgency; as, a press of engagements.
- (n.) An apparatus or machine by which any substance or body is pressed, squeezed, stamped or shaped or by which an impression of a body is taken; sometimes, the place or building containing a press or presses.
- (n.) A multitude of individuals crowded together; / crowd of single things; a throng.
- (v.) To try to force (something upon some one); to urge or inculcate with earnestness or importunity; to enforce; as, to press divine truth on an audience.
- (v.) To straiten; to distress; as, to be pressed with want or hunger.
- (v.i.) To move on with urging and crowding; to make one's way with violence or effort; to bear onward forcibly; to crowd; to throng; to encroach.
- (n.) An East Indian insectivore (Tupaia ferruginea). It is arboreal in its habits, and has a bushy tail. The fur is soft, and varies from rusty red to maroon and to brownish black.
- (v.) To embrace closely; to hug.
- (n.) An upright case or closet for the safe keeping of articles; as, a clothes press.
- (v.i.) To urge with vehemence or importunity; to exert a strong or compelling influence; as, an argument presses upon the judgment.
- (n.) The act of pressing or thronging forward.
- (v.) To oppress; to bear hard upon.
- (n.) A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy.
- (v.) To squeeze in or with suitable instruments or apparatus, in order to compact, make dense or smooth; as, to press cotton bales, paper, etc.; to smooth by ironing; as, to press clothes.
- (n.) To force into service, particularly into naval service; to impress.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
| APA | Webster's. (2011). press. Retrieved September 20, 2026, from http://smartdefine.org/press/definitions/2048933 |
| Chicago | Webster's. 2011. "press" http://smartdefine.org/press/definitions/2048933 (accessed September 20, 2026). |
| Harvard | Webster's 2011, press, Smart Define, viewed 20 September, 2026, <http://smartdefine.org/press/definitions/2048933>. |
| MLA | Webster's. "press" 27 May 2011. Web. 20 September 2026. <http://smartdefine.org/press/definitions/2048933> |