compress
pronunciation
How to pronounce compress in British English:
UK [kəmˈpres , ˈkɒmpres]
How to pronounce compress in American English:
US [kəmˈpres , ˈkɑːmpres]
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- Noun:
- a cloth pad or dressing (with or without medication) applied firmly to some part of the body (to relieve discomfort or reduce fever)
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- Verb:
- make more compact by or as if by pressing
- squeeze or press together
Word Origin
- compress
- compress: see press
- compress (v.)
- late 14c., "to press (something) together," from Old French compresser "compress, put under pressure," from Latin compressare "to press together," frequentative of comprimere "to squeeze," from com- "together" (see com-) + premere "to press" (see press (v.1)). Related: Compressed; compressing.
- compress (n.)
- 1590s in the surgical sense, from compress (v.).
Example
- 1. People find patterns to compress information and make it manageable .
- 2. Most companies share radio towers and have learned how to compress traffic .
- 3. Bogus quantification attempts to compress complex problems and analyses into single observations .
- 4. Tax and benefit policies that compress europe 's wage distribution are one of these .
- 5. Any tumor may compress regions of the brain and increase internal pressure upsetting the organ 's delicate functional balance .