Other forms: compressed, compressing, compresses
To compress something is to squeeze it into a smaller space. Air pushed into a diving tank, a sleeping bag stuffed back into a sack half its size, a photo shrunk small enough to email.
Computing uses it constantly: you compress a file, and a compressed folder holds ten times what it looks like. Time can be compressed as well — a year's course compressed into one hard weekend. Compression is the process, a compressor is the machine, and to decompress is to let it all out again. Careful with the noun compress, which is a different thing altogether: a folded cloth pressed onto a wound or a bruise, as in a cold compress. The stress moves between them — the verb is com-PRESS, the noun COM-press.
1verbsqueezeTo press something into a smaller space.~16%
“The machine compresses the cardboard into flat blocks.”
2verbcompressTo make a computer file take up less space.~74%
“Compress the folder before you send it.”
3verbcondenseTo fit something into a shorter time.~2%
“They compressed six weeks of teaching into ten days.”
synonyms: condense, shorten
4nounclothA folded cloth pressed onto a wound or a swelling.~8%
“Hold a cold compress against it for ten minutes.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 12 sentences found in the wild and placed 12 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Latin premō meant to press and com- meant together, so comprimō was to press together. Later Latin compressare, to press hard, came through Old French compresser into Middle English compressen. Squeeze the word and the same two pieces fall out: together, press.
Latin
compressare — to press hard/together
Old French
compresser
Middle English
compressen
English, today
compress
Built from
From Middle English compressen, from Old French compresser, from Latin compressare (“to press hard/together”), from Latin compressus, the past participle of comprimō (“to compress”), itself from com- (“together”) + premō (“press”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA