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suppress

/səˈpres//səˈpres/·verb
to hold something down by force; to stop it being seen, felt, or expressed
Fig. 1 — Five people sit around a table, and one stands to lift up a small bulb of light — an idea, bright enough that for a moment the whole table watches it shine.
01Definition

To suppress is to hold something down by force — sub, 'under', plus premere, 'to press'. Regimes suppress dissent, drugs suppress immune responses, people suppress smiles, memories, and grief. The press in the word never gets to rest, because suppression is not removal: what is held down remains, fully charged, directly under the hand that holds it. That is the word's standing warning — pressure is a debt, and what is suppressed in one place tends to surface in another.

02In use
  • iSuppressed for decades, the documents did not emerge until the trial.
  • iiThe drug suppresses the immune reaction that would reject the transplant.
  • iiiHe suppressed a smile and pretended the news meant nothing to him.
03Collocations
  • suppress dissent
  • suppress a smile
  • suppress the immune system
  • suppress evidence
  • suppress a rebellion

Family suppression (noun) · suppressed (adjective) · suppressant (noun)

04Relations

=stifle, quash, restrain, smother, subdue

≠release, express, galvanize

05Compared
PairThe difference
suppress vs compressparts pressed together into less space, nothing resisting → compress; something pressed down so it cannot surface → suppress.
suppress vs inhibitan existing activity held below its natural level → inhibit; something pressed down so it never surfaces → suppress.
suppress vs fosterhold something down so it can't surface → suppress; help it grow → foster.
06TOEFL & IELTS

TOEFL biology tests immune suppression and appetite suppressants; history passages, the suppression of revolts and newspapers. For IELTS Speaking Part 3, suppressing versus expressing emotions is practically a stock question. Grammar point: suppress is always transitive — you suppress something (feelings, evidence, uprisings); it never stands alone.

07Asked
What is the difference between suppress and repress?
Awareness. To suppress is to hold something down on purpose, knowing you are doing it — you suppress a laugh, suppress your anger in a meeting. To repress, in the psychological sense, is to bury something so that you are no longer aware of it — a repressed memory has dropped below consciousness. Suppression is a deliberate lid held by hand; repression is a door that closed without you noticing.
What does it mean to suppress emotions?
To consciously hold feelings down rather than express them — keeping a straight face, swallowing anger, hiding disappointment. The word carries its standing warning: suppression is not removal. What is pressed down stays fully charged, and psychologists note it tends to resurface elsewhere, which is exactly the tension the scene above shows — the bright idea held down at the table does not vanish, it is forced out of sight while still lit.
What does suppress mean, and is it always transitive?
To hold something down by force so it cannot be seen, felt, or expressed — from Latin sub, 'under', plus premere, 'to press'. Grammatically it is always transitive: you suppress something (dissent, a smile, the immune system), never just 'suppress'. And the press never rests — what is suppressed remains, pinned beneath the hand rather than gone, which is why it is the wrong verb when something is truly removed.
What is the difference between suppress and oppress?
What they act on. You suppress a thing or a feeling — dissent, a cough, evidence, a rebellion. You oppress people — hold them down cruelly and persistently, as a tyranny oppresses its citizens. A government can suppress a protest (crush this event) and oppress a population (grind them down over years). Suppress targets the act; oppress targets the human beings.
What does it mean to suppress the immune system?
To dampen its activity deliberately — not to switch it off but to turn it down. Transplant patients take immunosuppressant drugs so the body will not attack the new organ; the word-family noun is immunosuppression. The core sense holds: the immune response is pressed down, still present but restrained, which is why suppressed immunity leaves a patient more open to infection.