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(d
pr
n) [ad. L. d
pressi
n-em, n. of action f. dprim
re to press down, depress: perh. immed. a. F. dépression (14th c. in Hatzf.).]
The action of depressing, or condition of being depressed; a depressed formation; that which is depressed: in various senses. (Opp. to elevation.)
1. lit. The action of pressing down, or fact of being pressed down; usually more widely: The action of lowering, or process of sinking; the condition of being lowered in position.
1656 BLOUNT Glossogr.,
Depression, a pressing or weighing down.
1697 POTTER Antiq. Greece III. ix. (1715) 78 Flags, the Elevation whereof was a Signal to joyn Battle, the Depression to desist.
1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 245 With fracture, fissure, or depression of a portion of bone.
1855 LYELL Elem. Geol. vi. (ed. 5) 72 Movements of upheaval or depression.
1882 VINES Sachs' Bot. 825 The curve of growth follows all the elevations and depressions of the curve of temperature.
2. spec. a. Astron., etc. (a) The angular distance of a star, the pole, etc., below the horizon (opp. to altitude); the angular distance of the visible horizon below the true horizontal plane, the DIP of the horizon; in Surveying, etc., the angular distance of an object below the horizontal plane through the point of observation (opp. to elevation). (b) The lowest altitude of a circumpolar star (or of the sun seen from within the polar circle), when it is on the meridian beneath the pole (opp. to culmination). (c) The apparent sinking of the celestial pole towards the horizon as the observer travels towards the equator.
c1391 CHAUCER Astrol. II. §25 And than is the depressioun of the pol antartik, that is to seyn, than is the pol antartik by-nethe the Orisonte the same quantite of space.
1594 BLUNDEVIL Exerc. III.
I. xxxiii. (ed. 7) 346 The depression or lowest Meridian Altitude of the starres.
1605 BACON Adv. Learn. I. vi. §10 (1873) 48 He takes knowledge of the depression of the southern pole.
1667 Phil. Trans. II. 438 The degree of its [the Needle's] depression under the Horizon.
1727-51 CHAMBERS Cycl.,
Depression of the pole..Depression of the visible horizon.
1856 KANE Arct. Expl. I. viii 79 The sun's lower culmination, if such a term can be applied to his midnight depression.
b. Gunnery. The lowering of the muzzle of a gun below the horizontal line.
1853 STOCQUELER Milit. Encycl.,
Depression, the pointing of any piece of ordnance, so that its shot may be projected under the point-blank line.
c. Surg. The operation of couching for cataract.
1851-60 MAYNE Expos. Lex.,
Depression..a term for one of the operations for cataract.
3. concr. A depressed or sunken formation on a surface; a hollow, a low place or part.
1665 Phil. Trans. I. 42 Of the Nature of the Ground..and of the several risings and depressions thereof.
1789 W. BUCHAN Dom. Med. (1790) 591 A dislocation of the humerus may be known by a depression or cavity on the top of the shoulder.
1855 LYELL Elem. Geol. xxix. (ed. 5) 520 The Curral is..one of three great valleys..a second depression called the Serra d' Agoa being almost as deep.
1884 BOWER &
SCOTT De Bary's Phaner. 53 The leaves of the above Crassulaceæ have round spots or depressions easily seen with the naked eye.
1885 Manch. Exam. 13 June 5/3 The depressions, which are of course warmer..than the plateaus.
4. fig. a. The action of putting down or bringing low, or the fact or condition of being brought low (in station, fortunes, etc.). Now rare.
a1533 FRITH Wks. 5 (R.) Aduersitie, tribulation, worldly depression.
1631 MASSINGER Emp. of East Ded., When the iniquity of those times laboured the depression of approved goodness.
1741 MIDDLETON Cicero I. v. 368 The depression of the family, and the ruin of their fortunes.
1872 YEATS Growth Comm. 136 The depression of the barons, during the Wars of the Roses.
b. Suppression. Obs.
1656 HOBBES Six Lessons Wks. 1845 VII. 278 You..profess mathematics, and theology, and practise the depression of the truth in both.
c. Disparagement, depreciation. Obs.
1628 FELTHAM Resolves II. lxxiii, Thus depressing others, it [pride] seeketh to raise it selfe, and by this depression angers them.
1659 BP. WALTON Consid. Considered 286 Things which tend to the depression of the esteem of the Hebrew Text.
5. a. A lowering in quality, vigour, or amount; the state of being lowered or reduced in force, activity, intensity, etc. In mod. use esp. of trade; spec. the Depression, the financial and industrial ‘slump’ of 1929 and subsequent years. Also attrib.
1793 VANSITTART Refl. Peace 57 The depression of the public funds..began long before the war.
1826 Ann. Reg. 1 A continuance of that depression in manufactures and commerce.
1837 WHITTOCK Bk. Trades (1842) 392 The consequence has been a general depression in price for all but the best work.
1845 STODDART in
Encycl. Metrop. I. 64/1 There is not in actions, as there is in qualities, a simple scale of elevation and depression.
1886 (
title), Third Report of the Royal Commission appointed to inquire into the Depression of Trade and Industry.
1934 A. HUXLEY Beyond Mexique Bay 233 Since the depression, books on Mexico have been almost as numerous..as books on Russia.
1935 ‘J. GUTHRIE’ Little Country xiii. 212 ‘I thought you had a baby.’ ‘No, darling,’ said Carol. ‘None of us are having them now. It's the depression.’
1935 Punch 19 June 719/1 All the wireless sets in Little Wobbly are pre-depression models.
1957 M. SHARP Eye of Love iii 39 It was the Depression that had finished him off.
1963 H. G
ARNER in R. Weaver
Canad. Short Stories 2nd Ser. (1968) 37 An old Scots syndicalist I'd met on a road gang..in the early years of the depression.
b. Lowering in pitch, flattening (of the voice, or a musical note).
1845 STODDART in
Encycl. Metrop. I. 176/1 A slight degree of elevation or depression, of length or shortness, of weakness or force, serves to mark a very sensible difference in the emotion meant to be expressed.
1878 W. H. S
TONE Sci. Basis Music v. 66 The present music should be carefully gone over..and the modified notes marked..with a mark of elevation or depression, according to their specific key relationship.
c. A lowering of the column of mercury in the barometer or of the atmospheric pressure which is thereby measured; spec. in Meteorol. a centre of minimum pressure, or the system of winds around it (= CYCLONE 1c).
1881 R. H. SCOTT in
Gd. Words July 454 Barometrical depressions or cyclones.
Mod. Weather Report, A deep depression is forming over our western coasts. The depression of yesterday has passed over England to the German Ocean.
d. Path. Lowering of the vital functions or powers; a state of reduced vitality.
1803 Med. Jrnl. X. 116 Great depression..has without doubt lately shewn itself in a very remarkable manner in the influenza.
1843 LEVER J. Hinton ii, I aroused myself from the depression of nearly thirty hours' sea-sickness.
1875 B M
EADOWS Clin. Observ. 38 The inflammatory nature of the local affection was much more severe, and the constitutional depression..more marked.
6. a. The condition of being depressed in spirits; dejection.
1665 Baker's Chron. an. 1660 (R.) Lambert, in great depression of spirit, twice pray'd him to let him escape.
1752 JOHNSON Rambler No. 204
7 He observed their depression and was offended.
1857 MRS. CARLYLE Lett. II. 326 Such horrible depression of spirits.
1876 GEO. ELIOT Dan. Der. lxix, He found her in a state of deep depression, overmastered by those distasteful miserable memories.
b. Psychol. Freq. a sign of psychiatric disorder or a component of various psychoses, with symptoms of misery, anguish, or guilt accompanied by headache, insomnia, etc.
1905 Psychol. Rev. XII. 111 If these symptoms of
depression
the motor retardation, the difficulty of apprehension and of
associationbecome aggravated, one finds various forms of melancholia.
1934 H. C. WARREN Dict. Psychol. 73/1
Depression..the pathological usage refers to a mood of pronounced hopelessness and overwhelming feeling of inadequacy or unworthiness.
1960 KOESTLER Lotus & Robot II. viii. 202 Even patients with severe depression-psychosis..turned their heads slowly and worked up a mask-like smile.
1962 Lancet 2 June 1171/1 Even psychiatrists may profit from the reminder that ‘events at the onset of depression..must be interpreted with caution for failure at work..or in a love affair may be early symptoms, rather than causes’.
7. Alg. Reduction to a lower degree or power.
1727-51 CHAMBERS Cycl.,
Depression of equations.
1823 CRABB Technol. Dict.,
Depression of an Equation (
Algeb.), the reducing an equation to lower degrees, as a biquadratic to a cubic equation, or a cubic to a quadratic.
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