as in unemotional
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Recent Examples of repressive
Its durability is in large part due to Wilde’s sneaky indictment of the repressive culture that forced Dorian to keep his true self hidden, locked away in a closet.
—
Samantha Allen, Them., 7 Oct. 2025
The unprecedented internet blackout came without public warning and was immediately attributed to an order from the Taliban, a repressive Islamist regime that has stifled personal freedoms, particularly those of women and girls, since taking power in 2021.
—Hilary Whiteman, CNN Money, 3 Oct. 2025
In Putin-era Russia, the takeover of NTV, and similar cases of state encroachment in the media, eventually led to a culture of self-censorship, in which outright bans or other repressive measures were relatively rare.
—Joshua Yaffa, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
According to the report, arbitrary detention is not an accident of state power but a systematic strategy — a cornerstone of Venezuela’s repressive apparatus.
—Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 23 Sep. 2025
Black South Africans detested the Springboks as a symbol of the brutally violent, repressive apartheid regime.
—Mary Crossan, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Vineland’s repressive villain Brock Vond ends ferried to hell by two Eastside vatos locos, while the hippie father Zoyd reunites with his daughter at an anarchist family picnic.
—John Lopez, HollywoodReporter, 6 Sep. 2025
So Beijing has relied on a sophisticated cocktail of repressive policies to suppress potential dissent in Tibet, including placing three out of every four Tibetan students in colonial-style boarding schools and installing mass surveillance systems in schools and places of worship.
—Tenzin Dorjee, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2025
In jurisdictions as disparate as Thailand, India, Pakistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Eswatini, and Zimbabwe, governments are deploying repressive legal interpretations to silence free speech.
—Stephen Townley, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
Samantha Allen, Them., 7 Oct. 2025
The unprecedented internet blackout came without public warning and was immediately attributed to an order from the Taliban, a repressive Islamist regime that has stifled personal freedoms, particularly those of women and girls, since taking power in 2021.
—Hilary Whiteman, CNN Money, 3 Oct. 2025
In Putin-era Russia, the takeover of NTV, and similar cases of state encroachment in the media, eventually led to a culture of self-censorship, in which outright bans or other repressive measures were relatively rare.
—Joshua Yaffa, New Yorker, 26 Sep. 2025
According to the report, arbitrary detention is not an accident of state power but a systematic strategy — a cornerstone of Venezuela’s repressive apparatus.
—Antonio María Delgado, Miami Herald, 23 Sep. 2025
Black South Africans detested the Springboks as a symbol of the brutally violent, repressive apartheid regime.
—Mary Crossan, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Vineland’s repressive villain Brock Vond ends ferried to hell by two Eastside vatos locos, while the hippie father Zoyd reunites with his daughter at an anarchist family picnic.
—John Lopez, HollywoodReporter, 6 Sep. 2025
So Beijing has relied on a sophisticated cocktail of repressive policies to suppress potential dissent in Tibet, including placing three out of every four Tibetan students in colonial-style boarding schools and installing mass surveillance systems in schools and places of worship.
—Tenzin Dorjee, Foreign Affairs, 1 Sep. 2025
In jurisdictions as disparate as Thailand, India, Pakistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Eswatini, and Zimbabwe, governments are deploying repressive legal interpretations to silence free speech.
—Stephen Townley, MSNBC Newsweek, 29 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for repressive
Adjective
-
The infamously monotone and unemotional Young behind the green.—
Brody Miller,
New York Times,
29 Sep. 2025
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Inadequate manager preparation: Many managers receive little to no training on how to handle layoff conversations with sensitivity, often defaulting to brief, unemotional exchanges that feel insulting to departing employees.—
Caroline Castrillon,
Forbes.com,
16 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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If the report comes out, it is expected to show that employers added 50,000 jobs in September, unimpressive but up from a meager 22,000 in August, according to a survey of economists by the data firm FactSet.—
Orianna Rosa Royle,
Fortune,
30 Sep. 2025
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But in the week since it was posted, Bowes' video gotten a fairly unimpressive 46,000 views.—
Geoff Brumfiel,
NPR,
18 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Repressive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/repressive. Accessed 9 Oct. 2025.
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