press#

press n throng, crush, *crowd, mob, rout, horde

Analogous words: *multitude, army, host, legion

press vb Press, bear, bear down, squeeze, crowd, jam mean to exert pressure upon something or someone continuously or for a length of time. They are not close synonyms because of added implications and connotations which often give them distinct or specific senses.

Press fundamentally implies an effect involving a weighing upon or a steady pushing or thrusting and may suggest little more than this

{

press down the soil with his feet

}

{

the crowd pressed against them

}

{

press clothes with a hot iron

}

More often, however, the word is used in any of several extended senses in which it additionally implies such ideas as constraint or compulsion

{

he pressed the agitated girl into a seat— Hardy

}

or urgency in driving or in prosecuting

{

the work was pressed forward with the same feverish haste— Henry Adams

}

{

you see, my people believe Gideon killed Hobart, and are determined to press the matter— Rose Macaulay

}

or importunity in urging

{

next morning, though they were pressed to stay, the lama insisted on departure— Kipling

}

{she pressed me to take some cream crackers also— Joycey or, especially in the intransitive, a pushing or shoving to an objective (as in great numbers or with speedy movement)

{

he pressed on rapidly . . . towards what was evidently a signal light— Hardy

}

Bear (see also CARRY, BEAR 3) implies the exertion of weight or of pressure upon another person or thing

{

the ceiling bears down upon the columns

}

{

misfortune bore heavily upon him

}

Like press, the term has extended use; it and bear down may imply the achievement of any end consistent with the action of pressing down or heavily upon

{

Clan Alpine's best are backward borne— Scott

}

{

his activity and zeal bore down all opposition— Macaulay

}

Squeeze usually implies the exertion of pressure on both sides or on all sides strongly enough and for a long enough time to accomplish a flattening, a crushing, a shaping, an emptying, or a compression

{

in washing silk stockings be sure to squeeze them, not wring them

}

{

the child had squeezed the wax doll out of shape

}

Usually, however, the term carries an added implication that gives it an extended or specific meaning while often retaining its basic implication; sometimes it implies nothing more than an expression of affection

{

he squeezed his friend's hand

}

but at other times it implies such a different idea as extraction

{

squeeze the juice from a lemon

}

Approximates a laugh formed by . . . squeezing guttural sounds out of the throat— Pynchon) or eliciting with difficulty

{

we squeezed out of him an admission that he was leaving

}

or extortion

{

squeezing the people ... of all the wealth that could be drained out of them— Froude

}

Squeeze is also susceptible to use even when there is no suggestion of exerting force on another but a clear suggestion of forcing someone, often oneself, or something into a space that is extremely small or is very circumscribed

{

squeeze through a half- opened window

}

{

squeezes his hand into the hole and grasps the prize— Stevenson-Hamilton

}

Crowd (see also PACK) implies the exertion of pressure upon and usually suggests such a force as a number of persons or of things closely packed together

{

great numbers of the birds were crowded to death

}

{

I hope not too many try to crowd in here at once. It isn't a very big room— Steinbeck

}

{

never have more startling twists been crowded into the concluding scene of a melodrama— J. M. Brown

}

{

the multitude of weeds crowded out the flowers

}

Sometimes crowd implies pressure exerted by one or more persons in pushing or shoving through a crowd

{

the speakers crowded their way through the throng to the platform

}

Jam in its most frequent meaning carries an implication of being wedged in so that pressure on all sides ensues and movement or escape is made impossible

{

the courts need not be jammed with negligence cases—5. H. Hofstadter

}

{

just above McCauslin's, there is a rocky rapid, where logs jam in the spring— Thoreau

}

{

traffic was completely jammed by the crowd— Current Biog.

}

Sometimes, however, the term implies not pressure upon all sides but (as in reference to a gun, an engine, or a machine) the presence of an obstacle or an obstruction or the displacement of a part which prevents operation

{

her propeller got foul of a rope, so that the shaft was jammed, and the engines could not be worked— Herschell

}

Analogous words: *push, thrust, propel, shove: drive, impel, *move: *pack, cram, stuff, ram