Noun

The exercise of authority or power in a burdensome, cruel, or unjust manner.

* (Sir Walter Raleigh)

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

The act of oppressing, or the state of being oppressed.

A feeling of being oppressed.

*, chapter=7

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=[…] 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.}}