oppression

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.

   “Oh, by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, oppressions, imprisonments, tortures, poisonings, and under what reasons of state and politic subtilty, have these forenamed kings […] pulled the vengeance of God upon themselves […]”

   “"Tibet challenges the conscience of the world," I told the audience at a gathering outside the town's main temple. "If freedom-loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China's oppression in China and Tibet, we have lost all moral authority to speak on behalf of human rights anywhere in the world."”

2. (countable, uncountable)The act of oppressing, or the state of being oppressed.

   “Extreme freedom is followed by extreme oppression, said Plato.”

   “We're choosing to use "anti-Jewishness" [rather than "anti-Semitism"] in recognition of the separate experiences and different oppressions of other peoples who also claim the name of "Semite."”

3. (countable, uncountable)A feeling of being oppressed. Special usage may include a sense of heaviness or obstruction in the body or mind; depression; dullness; lassitude.

   “Our oppression was lifted by the reappearance of the sun.”

   “[…] St. Bede's at this period of its history was perhaps the poorest and most miserable parish in the East End of London. Close-packed, crushed by the buttressed height of the railway viaduct, rendered airless by huge walls of factories, it at once banished lively interest from a stranger's mind and left only a dull oppression of the spirit.”