pressed
/pɹɛst/
pressed is the simple past and past participle of press.
Adjective
pressed (comparative more pressed, superlative most pressed)
- Under strain or deprivation.
- The staff was even more pressed for useful intelligence about the enemy's intentions than it was about the enemy's capabilities.
- He found himself hard pressed.
- Upset, bothered.
- She did what she always does: laid out a trap, and the well-intended took the bait. Like clockwork. Why do we stay so pressed instead of just ignoring her?2020, Evan Ross Katz, “Why Did We Take the 'Harry Styles Wore a Dress' Bait?”, in Paper Magazine
- Recruited by a press gang.
- The most obvious source for tracking pressed men is the muster books of the individual ships, for these encompass those impressed both afloat and ashore. Yet the muster books are notoriously uneven in quality as an historical source.2008, Nicholas Rogers, The Press Gang: Naval Impressment and its opponents in Georgian Britain, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 4
Meaning of press
Verb
press (third-person singular simple present presses, present participle pressing, simple past and past participle pressed or prest)
- To exert weight or force against, to act upon with force or weight; to exert pressure upon.
- To activate a button or key by exerting a downward or forward force on it, and then releasing it.
- To compress, squeeze.
- to press fruit for the purpose of extracting the juice
- To clasp, hold in an embrace.
- With tears and ſmiles ſhe took her ſon, and preſs'd / Th' illuſtrious infant to her fragrant breaſt.a. 1701 (date written), John Dryden, “The Last Parting of Hector and Andromache. From the Sixth Book of the Iliad.”, in The Miscellaneous Works of John Dryden, […], volume IV, London: […] J[acob] and...
- Synonyms:
- hug
- To reduce to a particular shape or form by pressure, especially flatten or smooth.
- to press cloth with a clothes-iron
- To flatten a selected area of fabric using an iron with an up-and-down, not sliding, motion, so as to avoid disturbing adjacent areas.
Forms of pressed
| comparative | more pressed |
|---|---|
| superlative | most pressed |
Words formed from pressed
Phrases with pressed
- pressed on
- pressed out
- pressed down
- pressed hams
- bench pressed
- pressed ahead
- pressed flesh
- pressed pause
- pressed glasses
- military pressed
- pressed the flesh
- pressed one's luck
2 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with pressed
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- attest
- guest
- quest
- bequest
- distressed
- pest
- prest
- request
- revest
- west
- wrest
- zest
- contest
- depressed
- dressed
- gest
- impressed
- jest
- suggest
- acid test
- best
- celeste
- divest
- ingest
- molest
- North West
- northwest
- possessed
- professed
- southwest
- -cest
- addressed
- behest
- compressed
- congest
- detest
- fest
- infest
- lest
- obsessed
- pretest
- processed
- repressed
- rest.
- stressed
- tressed
- unrest
- unstressed
Questions about pressed
- What does pressed mean?
- Pressed means under strain or deprivation.
- What is pressed the simple past and past participle of?
- Pressed is the simple past and past participle of press.
- What part of speech is pressed?
- Pressed is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce pressed?
- Pressed is pronounced /pɹɛst/.
Words near pressed in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pressed (page history and authors); press (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-pressed.ogg.
Cite this entry: “pressed.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pressed. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.