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compress

verb
/kəmˈpɹɛs//ˈkɒmpɹɛs/UK/ˈkɑmpɹɛs/US

Etymology

From Middle French compresse, from compresse (“to compress”), from Late Latin compressare (“to press hard/together”), from Latin compressus, the past participle of comprimō (“to compress”), itself from com- (“together”) + premō (“press”).

  1. derived from compressus
  2. derived from compressare
  3. derived from compresser
  4. inherited from compressen

Definitions

  1. To make smaller

    To make smaller; to press or squeeze together, or to make something occupy a smaller space or volume.

    • The force required to compress a spring varies linearly with the displacement.
    • events of centuries […] compressed within the compass of a single life
    • The same strength of expression, though more compressed, runs through his historical harangues.

  2. To be pressed together or folded by compression into a more economic, easier format.

    • Our new model compresses easily, ideal for storage and travel

  3. To condense into a more economic, easier format.

    • This chart compresses the entire audit report into a few lines on a single diagram.
  4. ›+ 6 more definitions

    1. To abridge.

      • If you try to compress the entire book into a three-sentence summary, you will lose a lot of information.

    2. To make digital information smaller by encoding it using fewer bits.

      • The command-line tool gzip allows you to compress files in a few different ways. First, gzip can compress results from standard input.

    3. To make a pulse or particle bunch shorter by applying dispersion to it.

      • Diffraction gratings are by far the most common elements used to stretch and compress pulses because of their substantial angular dispersion, […]

    4. To embrace sexually.

      • This nymph compreſs'd by him vvho rules the day, / VVhom Delphi and the Delian iſle obey, / Andræmon lov'd; and, bleſs'd in all thoſe charms / That pleas'd a God, ſucceeded to her arms.

    5. A multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice, etc., used to apply to a patient's…

      A multiply folded piece of cloth, a pouch of ice, etc., used to apply to a patient's skin, cover the dressing of wounds, and placed with the aid of a bandage to apply pressure on an injury.

      • He held a cold compress over the sprain.

    6. A machine for compressing.

The neighborhood

Derived

compressed, compressed air, compressedly, compressibility, compressible, compressingly, compression, compressive, compressive strength, compressor, compressure, decompress, overcompress, precompress, recompress, supercompress

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for compress. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA