pressed

• IPA^(key): /pɹɛst/

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• Rhymes: -ɛst

pressed

1. simple past and past participle of press

pressed (comparative more pressed, superlative most pressed)

1. Under strain or deprivation.

   The staff was even more pressed for useful intelligence about the enemy's intentions than it was about the enemy's capabilities.

   He found himself hard pressed.

2. (Internet slang) Upset, bothered.

   Nicki stans are pressed because her album premiered at number 4.

   • 2020, Evan Ross Katz, “Why Did We Take the 'Harry Styles Wore a Dress' Bait?”, in Paper Magazine‎:

     She did what she always does: laid out a trap, and the well-intended took the bait. Like clockwork. Why do we stay so pressed instead of just ignoring her?

3. (nautical) Recruited by a press gang.
   • 2008, Nicholas Rogers, The Press Gang: Naval Impressment and its opponents in Georgian Britain, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 4:

     The most obvious source for tracking pressed men is the muster books of the individual ships, for these encompass those impressed both afloat and ashore. Yet the muster books are notoriously uneven in quality as an historical source.

• Despres, depress, spersed