Word Direct Answers

What does "pressure" mean?

Pressure: A contrasting force or impulse of any kind; as, the pressure of poverty; the pressure of taxes; the pressure of motives on the mind; the pressure of civilization. Where the pressure of danger was not felt. Macaulay.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Affliction; distress; grievance. My people's pressures are grievous. Eikon Basilike. In the midst of his great troubles and pressures. Atterbury.
  2. 3.Urgency; as, the pressure of business.
  3. 4.Impression; stamp; character impressed. All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past. Shak.
  4. 5.(Mech.) The action of a force against some obstacle or opposing force; a force in the nature of a thrust, distributed over a surface, often estimated with reference to the upon a unit's area. Atmospheric pressure, Center of pressure, etc. See under Atmospheric, Center, etc. -- Back pressure (Steam engine), pressure which resists the motion of the piston, as the pressure of exhaust steam which does not find free outlet. -- Fluid pressure, pressure like that exerted by a fluid. It is a thrust which is normal and equally intense in all directions around a point. Rankine. -- Pressure gauge, a gauge for indicating fluid pressure; a manometer.

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