Press
(Press), v. i.
1. To exert pressure; to bear heavily; to push, crowd, or urge with steady force.
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.
They pressed upon him for to touch him.
Mark iii. 10. 3. To urge with vehemence or importunity; to exert a strong or compelling influence; as, an argument
presses upon the judgment.
Press
(Press), 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.
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.
2. Specifically, a printing press.
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.
4. An upright case or closet for the safe keeping of articles; as, a clothes press. Shak.
5. The act of pressing or thronging forward.
In their throng and press to that last hold.
Shak. 6. Urgent demands of business or affairs; urgency; as, a press of engagements.
7. A multitude of individuals crowded together; crowd of single things; a throng.
They could not come nigh unto him for the press.
Mark ii. 4. 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.
