compress

1. 1

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

   • The force required to compress a spring varies linearly with the displacement.
2. 2

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

   • Our new model compresses easily, ideal for storage and travel
3. 3

   To condense into a more economic, easier format.transitive

   • This chart compresses the entire audit report into a few lines on a single diagram.
4. 4

   To abridge.transitive

   • If you try to compress the entire book into a three-sentence summary, you will lose a lot of information.
5. 5

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

   • The command-line tool gzip allows you to compress files in a few different ways. First, gzip can compress results from standard input.
6. 6

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

   • Diffraction gratings are by far the most common elements used to stretch and compress pulses because of their substantial angular dispersion, […]
7. 7

   To embrace sexually.obsolete

   • 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.

syn. astringe · compact · telescope · compactify · condense · densitize · pack · press · mash · scrunch · smush · squoosh

ant. decompact · decompactify · decompress · expand · uncompress · densen

1. 1

   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.
2. 2

   A machine for compressing.