Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of depressing.
  • noun The condition of being depressed.
  • noun An area that is sunk below its surroundings; a hollow.
  • noun The condition of feeling sad or despondent.
  • noun A mood disorder characterized usually by anhedonia, extreme sadness, poor concentration, sleep problems, loss of appetite, and feelings of guilt, helplessness, and hopelessness.
  • noun A lowering or reduction, as.
  • noun A reduction in physiological vigor or activity.
  • noun A lowering in amount, degree, or position.
  • noun A period of drastic economic decline, characterized by decreasing aggregate output, falling prices, and rising unemployment.
  • noun A period of widespread poverty and high unemployment.
  • noun Meteorology A region of low barometric pressure.
  • noun The angular distance below the horizontal plane through the point of observation.
  • noun Astronomy The angular distance of a celestial body below the horizon.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The difference between the low barometric pressure and the normal pressure for that locality; the departure of the pressure.
  • noun The act of pressing down, or the state of being pressed down. Specifically
  • noun In astronomy:
  • noun In gunnery, the lowering of the muzzle of a gun, corresponding to the raising of the breech.
  • noun In surgery, a kind of couching.
  • noun In music, the lowering or flatting of a tone: denoted in printed music by a ♭, or, after a ♯, by a ♯.
  • noun A hollow; a sinking or falling in of a surface; a forcing inward: as, roughness consisting in little protuberances and depressions; the depression of the skull.
  • noun Figuratively, the act of lowering or abasing: as, the depression of pride.
  • noun A sinking of the spirits; dejection; a state of sadness; want of courage or animation: as, depression of the mind.
  • noun A low state of strength; physical exhaustion.
  • noun A state of dullness or inactivity: as, depression of trade; commercial depression.
  • noun Humiliation, fall.
  • noun Melancholy, despondency.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of depressing.
  • noun The state of being depressed; a sinking.
  • noun A falling in of the surface; a sinking below its true place; a cavity or hollow.
  • noun Humiliation; abasement, as of pride.
  • noun Dejection; despondency; lowness.
  • noun Diminution, as of trade, etc.; inactivity; dullness.
  • noun (Astron.) The angular distance of a celestial object below the horizon.
  • noun (Math.) The operation of reducing to a lower degree; -- said of equations.
  • noun (Surg.) A method of operating for cataract; couching. See Couch, v. t., 8.
  • noun (Geod.) one which a descending line makes with a horizontal plane.
  • noun (Meteor.) the number of degrees that the dew-point is lower than the actual temperature of the atmosphere.
  • noun its apparent sinking, as the spectator goes toward the equator.
  • noun (Astron.) Same as Dip of the horizon, under Dip.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun geography an area that is lower in topography than its surroundings
  • noun psychology in psychotherapy and psychiatry, a state of mind producing serious, long-term lowering of enjoyment of life or inability to visualize a happy future
  • noun psychology in psychotherapy and psychiatry, a period of unhappiness or low morale which lasts longer than several weeks and may include ideation of self-inflicted injury or suicide
  • noun meteorology an area of lowered air pressure that generally brings moist weather, sometimes promoting hurricanes and tornadoes
  • noun economics a period of major economic contraction;
  • noun economics, US Four consecutive quarters of negative, real GDP growth. See NBER.
  • noun biology, physiology a lowering, in particular a reduction in a particular biological variable or the function of an organ, in contrast to elevation

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin depressio.

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Examples

  • In fact, the word depression has virtually replaced unhappiness in our internal vocabularies.

    Eric Maisel, Ph.D.: Does Depression Exist? Ph.D. Eric Maisel 2012

  • In fact, the word depression has virtually replaced unhappiness in our internal vocabularies.

    Eric Maisel, Ph.D.: Does Depression Exist? Ph.D. Eric Maisel 2012

  • If she took on too much, if she became overly excited, she could tumble into a state of despair for which the term "depression" seems rather mild.

    Virginia Woolf, my mother and me 2011

  • If she took on too much, if she became overly excited, she could tumble into a state of despair for which the term "depression" seems rather mild.

    Virginia Woolf, my mother and me 2011

  • In fact, the word depression has virtually replaced unhappiness in our internal vocabularies.

    Eric Maisel, Ph.D.: Does Depression Exist? Ph.D. Eric Maisel 2012

  • One cold shower and two cold beers later: stress, and its darker cousin depression, is a serious problem in Japan, I feel, but not one that is very well understood.

    Japanese views on suicide: part 2 of 3 2007

  • After World War II, the term depression lapsed into disuse, because economic downturns became milder and rarely involved general deflation (price declines).

    You Call this a Depression? 2008

  • I had never heard of the word depression when I was a child.

    Black Pain Terrie M. Williams 2008

  • I had never heard of the word depression when I was a child.

    Black Pain Terrie M. Williams 2008

  • "Just as the NBER does not define the term depression or identify depressions, there is no formal NBER definition or dating of the Great Depression," the bureau's website says.

    America Has No Means to Recover from a Depression 2008

Comments

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  • There is a difference between being depressed and being dead: One is preferable." (The efficiency of giving people their choice of two possibilities is that they'll take one of them.) --Jan Cox

    April 6, 2007

  • Super Mario: Depression

    November 23, 2008

  • ...Some economists require a fall in GDP of 10 per cent or more before a recession would be referred to as a depression (see Wikipedia article on Depression (economics).

    It would seem a depression hasn't been defined in the same way a recession has.

    January 24, 2009

  • ...Some economists require a fall in GDP of 10 per cent or more before a recession would be referred to as a depression (see Wikipedia article on Depression (economics).

    It would seem a depression hasn't been defined in the same way a recession has.

    January 24, 2009