Pressed

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Pronunciation: /pɹɛst/

Definitions

1. Being squeezed or compressed physically ; having an urgent need or demand that must be addressed quickly ; being made to act or decide under external force or pressure
2. Experiencing force applied by weight or effort ; characterized by immediate or pressing demands or deadlines ; influenced or driven to take action through coercion or necessity
3. Undergoing mechanical compression or flattening ; facing a critical situation that calls for swift attention ; obligated or constrained to behave in a particular way due to pressure

Etymology: Before "pressed" meant anything about force or urgency, the word was a crowd. Middle English "presse" meant a throng or a crush of people, and it also meant a cupboard for clothes, which is where the "clothespress" sense in the sources comes from. The modern verb descends from Old French "presser," which came from Latin "pressare," a frequentative form built on "premere," meaning "to press." English already had its own native words for the same idea, including Old English "þringan" and "þrǣstan," meaning to crowd or force. These native verbs were largely displaced by the French-derived one. The sense of pressure as physical weight or squeezing came first, and the figurative senses grew from it. Being pressed came to mean being pushed, hemmed in, or forced by circumstance, so a person pressed for time or money is squeezed by necessity in much the same way that cloth is squeezed in a press. The sense of urgent demands and deadlines follows naturally from that image.

Synonyms: squeezed, compressed, flattened, packed, crushed

Antonyms: expanded, opened, released, unfolded, unpressed