MEANING
1. To hold back an emotion, impulse, or thought instead of expressing it openly.
2. To put down resistance, protest, or rebellion through authority or physical force.
3. In psychoanalytic theory, to keep distressing thoughts or memories outside conscious awareness.
Use it for
A feeling is held back, opposition is crushed, or a thought is kept outside awareness.Names restrained emotion, forced political suppression, and—when intended—the distinct psychoanalytic sense.
On the page
She repressed a laugh when the mayor praised the broken fountain.
Word forms
- Base
- repress
- Past tense
- repressed
- Past participle
- repressed
- Present participle
- repressing
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- repress
- Present continuous
- am/is/are repressing
- Present perfect
- have/has repressed
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been repressing
- Past
- repressed
- Past continuous
- was/were repressing
- Past perfect
- had repressed
- Past perfect continuous
- had been repressing
- Future
- will repress
- Future continuous
- will be repressing
- Future perfect
- will have repressed
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been repressing
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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