oppressor

/əˈprɛsər/

/əˈprɛsə/

Other forms: oppressors

An oppressor is any authority (a group or a person) that uses its power unjustly to keep people under control. Many rebellious teenagers view their parents as oppressors, but the word is usually used to refer to dictators.

While you might complain about your oppressor, the teacher who makes you stay late to catch up on assignments you missed, a true oppressor denies basic human rights to people who live under their control. Before Partition in 1947, the citizens of India mostly viewed their British rulers as oppressors — in some cases, Indian farmers were forced by the British to grow non-food crops, causing thousands to starve. The Latin root is opprimere, "to crush or subdue."

Definitions of oppressor

1. noun

   a person of authority who subjects others to undue pressures
   types:

   authoritarian, dictator

   a person who behaves in a tyrannical manner

   meanie, meany, unkind person

   a person of mean disposition

   switcher, whipper

   a person who administers punishment by wielding a switch or whip

   persecutor, tormenter, tormentor

   someone who torments

   torturer

   someone who inflicts severe physical pain (usually for punishment or coercion)

   Big Brother

   an authoritarian leader and invader of privacy

   flogger, scourger

   a torturer who flogs or scourges (especially an official whose duty is to whip offenders)

   harasser

   a persistent tormentor

   disciplinarian, martinet, moralist

   someone who demands exact conformity to rules and forms

   blighter, cuss, gadfly, pest, pesterer

   a persistently annoying person

   tantaliser, tantalizer

   someone who tantalizes; a tormentor who offers something desirable but keeps it just out of reach

   witch-hunter

   someone who identifies and punishes people for their opinions

   type of:

   disagreeable person, unpleasant person

   a person who is not pleasant or agreeable