v. t. [ Corrupt. fr. prest ready money advanced, a loan; hence, earnest money given soldiers on entering service. See Prest, n. ] To force into service, particularly into naval service; to impress. [ 1913 Webster ]

To peaceful peasant to the wars is pressed. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Pressed p. pr. & vb. n. Pressing. ] [ F. presser, fr. L. pressare to press, fr. premere, pressum, to press. Cf. Print, v. ] 1. To urge, or act upon, with force, as weight; to act upon by pushing or thrusting, in distinction from pulling; to crowd or compel by a gradual and continued exertion; to bear upon; to squeeze; to compress; as, we press the ground with the feet when we walk; we press the couch on which we repose; we press substances with the hands, fingers, or arms; we are pressed in a crowd. [ 1913 Webster ]

Good measure, pressed down, and shaken together. Luke vi. 38. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To squeeze, in order to extract the juice or contents of; to squeeze out, or express, from something. [ 1913 Webster ]

From sweet kernels pressed,
She tempers dulcet creams. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

And I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. Gen. xl. 11. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To squeeze in or with suitable instruments or apparatus, in order to compact, make dense, or smooth; as, to press cotton bales, paper, etc.; to smooth by ironing; as, to press clothes. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To embrace closely; to hug. [ 1913 Webster ]

Leucothoe shook at these alarms,
And pressed Palemon closer in her arms. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To oppress; to bear hard upon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Press not a falling man too far. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. To straiten; to distress; as, to be pressed with want or hunger. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. To exercise very powerful or irresistible influence upon or over; to constrain; to force; to compel. [ 1913 Webster ]

Paul was pressed in the spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ. Acts xviii. 5. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. To try to force (something upon some one); to urge or inculcate with earnestness or importunity; to enforce; as, to press divine truth on an audience. [ 1913 Webster ]

He pressed a letter upon me within this hour. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

Be sure to press upon him every motive. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. To drive with violence; to hurry; to urge on; to ply hard; as, to press a horse in a race. [ 1913 Webster ]

The posts . . . went cut, being hastened and pressed on, by the king's commandment. Esther viii. 14. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Press differs from drive and strike in usually denoting a slow or continued application of force; whereas drive and strike denote a sudden impulse of force. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pressed brick. See under Brick. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ For prest, confused with press. ] A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have misused the king's press. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Press gang, or
Pressgang, a detachment of seamen under the command of an officer empowered to force men into the naval service. See Impress gang, under Impress. --
Press money, money paid to a man enlisted into public service. See Prest money, under Prest, a. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. presse. See 4th Press. ] 1. An apparatus or machine by which any substance or body is pressed, squeezed, stamped, or shaped, or by which an impression of a body is taken; sometimes, the place or building containing a press or presses. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Presses are differently constructed for various purposes in the arts, their specific uses being commonly designated; as, a cotton press, a wine press, a cider press, a copying press, etc. See Drill press. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Specifically, a printing press. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The art or business of printing and publishing; hence, printed publications, taken collectively, more especially newspapers or the persons employed in writing for them; as, a free press is a blessing, a licentious press is a curse. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. An upright case or closet for the safe keeping of articles; as, a clothes press. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The act of pressing or thronging forward. [ 1913 Webster ]

In their throng and press to that last hold. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. Urgent demands of business or affairs; urgency; as, a press of engagements. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A multitude of individuals crowded together; &unr_; crowd of single things; a throng. [ 1913 Webster ]

They could not come nigh unto him for the press. Mark ii. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

Cylinder press, a printing press in which the impression is produced by a revolving cylinder under which the form passes; also, one in which the form of type or plates is curved around a cylinder, instead of resting on a flat bed. --
Hydrostatic press. See under Hydrostatic. --
Liberty of the press, the free right of publishing books, pamphlets, or papers, without previous restraint or censorship, subject only to punishment for libelous, seditious, or morally pernicious matters. --
Press bed, a bed that may be folded, and inclosed, in a press or closet. Boswell. --
Press of sail, (Naut.), as much sail as the state of the wind will permit. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Zool.) An East Indian insectivore (Tupaia ferruginea). It is arboreal in its habits, and has a bushy tail. The fur is soft, and varies from rusty red to maroon and to brownish black. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To exert pressure; to bear heavily; to push, crowd, or urge with steady force. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To move on with urging and crowding; to make one's way with violence or effort; to bear onward forcibly; to crowd; to throng; to encroach. [ 1913 Webster ]

They pressed upon him for to touch him. Mark iii. 10. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To urge with vehemence or importunity; to exert a strong or compelling influence; as, an argument presses upon the judgment. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A kind of highly sized rag paper or board, sometimes containing a small admixture of wood pulp; -- so called because used originally, as now, in presses for pressing and finishing knit underwear. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. A cake of compressed substance, as: in gunpowder manufacture, the cake resulting from compressing the meal powder; in the treatment of coal tar, the pressed product at various stages of the process; or, in beet-sugar manufacture, the vegetable residue after the sugar juice has been expressed. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. One who, or that which, presses. [ 1913 Webster ]

Presser bar, or
Presser wheel (Knitting machine), a bar or wheel which closes the barbs of the needles to enable the loops of the yarn to pass over them. --
Presser foot, the part of a sewing machine which rests on the cloth and presses it down upon the table of the machine. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. See Press gang, under Press. [ 1913 Webster ]