Press

King James Dictionary

Press L.pressus.

1. To urge with force or weight a word of extensive use, denoting the application of any power, physical or moral, to something that is to be moved or affected. 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 the smith presses iron with his vise we are pressed with the weight of arguments or of cares, troubles and business. 2. To squeeze to crush as, to press grapes.  Genesis 40 3. To drive with violence to hurry as, to press a horse in motion, or in a race. 4. To urge to enforce to inculcate with earnestness as, to press divine truth on an audience. 5. To embrace closely to hug.

Leucothoe shook

And press'd Palemon closer in her arms.

6. To force into service, particularly into naval service to impress. 7. To straiten to distress as, to be pressed with want or with difficulties. 8. To constrain to compel to urge by authority or necessity.

The posts that rode on mules and camels went out, being hastened and pressed on by the king's commandment.  Esther 8

9. To urge to impose by importunity.

He pressed a letter upon me, within this hour, to deliver to you.

10. To urge or solicit with earnestness or importunity. He pressed me to accept of his offer. 11. To urge to constrain.

Paul was pressed in spirit, and testified to the Jews that Jesus was Christ.  Acts 18

Wickedness pressed with conscience, forecasteth grievous things.

12. To squeeze for making smooth as cloth or paper.

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.

PRESS, To urge or strain in motion to urge forward with force.

I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 3

Th' insulting victor presses on the more.

1. To bear on with force to encroach.

On superior powers

Were we to press, inferior might on ours.

2. To bear on with force to crowd to throng.

Thronging crowds press on you as you pass.

3. To approach unseasonably or importunately.

Nor press too near the throne.

4. To urge with vehemence and importunity.

He pressed upon them greatly, and they turned in to him.  Genesis 19

5. To urge by influence or moral force.

When arguments press equally in matters indifferent, the safest method is to give up ourselves to neither.

6. To push with force as, to press against the door.

PRESS, n.

1. An instrument or machine by which any body is squeezed, crushed or forced into a more compact form as a wine-press, cider-press or cheese-press. 2. A machine for printing a printing-press. Great improvements have been lately made in the construction of presses. 3. The art or business of printing and publishing. A free press is a great blessing to a free people a licentious press is a curse to society. 4. A crowd a throng a multitude of individuals crowded together.

And when they could not come nigh to him for the press-- Mark 2 .

5. The act of urging or pushing forward.

Which in their throng and press to the last hold,

Confound themselves.

6. A wine-vat or cistern.  Haggai 2 7. A case of closet for the safe keeping of garments. 8. Urgency urgent demands of affairs as a press of business. 9. A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy for impress.

Press of sail, in navigation, is as much sail as the state of the wind will permit.

Liberty of the press, in policy, is the free right of publishing books, pamphlets or papers without previous restraint or the unrestrained right which every citizen enjoys of publishing his thoughts and opinions, subject only to punishment for publishing what is pernicious to morals or to the peace of the state.

Webster's Dictionary

(1): ( n.) 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.

(2): ( v.) To straiten; to distress; as, to be pressed with want or hunger.

(3): ( v.) To embrace closely; to hug.

(4): ( v.) 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.

(5): ( v.) To squeeze, in order to extract the juice or contents of; to squeeze out, or express, from something.

(6): ( v. i.) To exert pressure; to bear heavily; to push, crowd, or urge with steady force.

(7): ( v.) 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.

(8): ( v. i.) 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.

(9): ( v. i.) To urge with vehemence or importunity; to exert a strong or compelling influence; as, an argument presses upon the judgment.

(10): ( v.) To oppress; to bear hard upon.

(11): ( n.) A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy.

(12): ( n.) Specifically, a printing press.

(13): ( n.) To force into service, particularly into naval service; to impress.

(14): ( n.) An upright case or closet for the safe keeping of articles; as, a clothes press.

(15): ( n.) The act of pressing or thronging forward.

(16): ( n.) Urgent demands of business or affairs; urgency; as, a press of engagements.

(17): ( n.) A multitude of individuals crowded together; / crowd of single things; a throng.

(18): ( n.) 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.

(19): ( v.) To drive with violence; to hurry; to urge on; to ply hard; as, to press a horse in a race.

(20): ( v.) To exercise very powerful or irresistible influence upon or over; to constrain; to force; to compel.

(21): ( v.) 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.

(22): ( n.) 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.

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

Not only the vat in which the juice was trodden out from the grapes, but in some cases the whole place for the reception of wine, grapes, and orchard-fruit. It was often a room excavated in the ground; thus the husbandman "dug a wine-press" in his vineyard,  Matthew 21:33 . See also  Proverbs 3:10   Joel 3:13   Haggai 2:16 . See WINE.

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament

PRESS. —See Crowd and Multitude

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

( פּוּרָה , Pur '''''Â''''' H''  ; Ληνός ). Among the Israelites this was a large trough, usually hewn out of stone ( Isaiah 5:2;  Matthew 21:33; comp. Nonni, Dionys . 12:330) or dug in the earth and walled up (Harmer, 3, 117). It had a trellised opening below. This trough was called Gath , גִּת (in the Talmud also גתה ), or Pur '''''Â''''' H'' , פּוּרָה ( Isaiah 63:3); and in it the grapes were trodden by men (five usually work together in Persia still; K Ä mpfer, Aemen. p. 377). Hence the phrase to tread the wine-press ( Job 24:11;  Lamentations 1:15;  Isaiah 63:2). The juice (Heb. Tir Ô Sh , תִּירשׁ ) flowed through the opening into a vat, usually in the earth (called Yekeb , יֶקֶב Gr. Προλήνιον ,  Isaiah 5:2, or Ὑπολήνιον ,  Isaiah 16:10, and simply Ληνός ,  Matthew 21:33; Lat. Lacus Vinarius , Colum. 12:18: in  Job 24:11, this word means, however, the trough or press itself). From this it is taken for fermentation in earthen vessels. These presses, which are still common in the East and the Levant (Arvieux 4:272 sq.; K Ä mpfer, ut sup.), were almost always outside of the towns, either in the vineyards or on mountains ( Zechariah 14:10;  Isaiah 5:2;  Matthew 21:33;  Mark 12:1;  Revelation 14:20). The slaves must usually have trodden the press, as it was hard labor ( Isaiah 63:1 sq.). They were cheered in it by singing and music (see  Isaiah 16:10;  Jeremiah 25:30;  Judges 9:27;  Jeremiah 25:30; Jeremiah 48, 33). See Ugolino, De Re Rust . Vet.  Hebrews 6:14 sq., in his Thesaur. 29. (See Oil); (See Wine).

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

pres  : As a verb is used in the Revised Version (British and American) as a translation of no less than 13 Greek and Hebrew words (rather more in the King James Version). All the Revised Version (British and American) uses are modern. In the King James Version may be noted The Wisdom of   Song of Solomon 17:11 , "pressed with conscience" (the Revised Version (British and American) "pressed hard by");  2 Maccabees 14:9 , "pressed on every side" (the Revised Version (British and American) "surrounded by foes");  Acts 18:5 , "pressed in the spirit" (the Revised Version (British and American) "constrained by"). As a noun, the King James Version uses "press" in  Mark 2:4 for ὄχλος , óchlos , "crowd" (so the Revised Version (British and American)). For wine press see Vine; Wine .