1. (a.) Unreasonably burdensome; unjustly severe, rigorous, or harsh; as, oppressive taxes; oppressive exactions of service; an oppressive game law.
2. (a.) Using oppression; tyrannical; as, oppressive authority or commands.
3. (a.) Heavy; overpowering; hard to be borne; as, oppressive grief or woe.
Thesaurus Entries
Herculean, absolute, absolutist, absolutistic, agonizing, airless, annoying, arbitrary, arduous, aristocratic, arrogant, authoritarian, authoritative, autocratic, backbreaking, besetting, black, bleak, bossy, bothersome, breathless, breezeless, brutal, burdensome, close, crushing, cumbersome, cumbrous, demanding, depressant, depressing, depressive, despotic, dictatorial, discouraging, disheartening, dismal, dispiriting, distressing, dolorous, domineering, down, effortful, encumbering, exacting, exhausting, exigent, feudal, forced, grievous, grinding, grueling, hampering, hard-earned, hard-fought, harrowing, harsh, heavy, hefty, high-handed, humid, ill-ventilated, impedimental, impeding, impeditive, imperative, imperial, imperious, incumbent, intolerable, irksome, killing, labored, laborious, lordly, lumpish, magisterial, magistral, massive, masterful, miserable, monocratic, muggy, onerous, operose, overbearing, overburdensome, overpowering, overruling, overwhelming, painful, peremptory, plaguey, punishing, racking, repressive, severe, somber, sticky, stifling, strained, strenuous, strict, stuffy, suffocating, sultry, superincumbent, suppressive, taxing, toilsome, tough, troublesome, trying, tyrannical, tyrannous, unbearable, uncomfortable, unendurable, unvented, unventilated, unwieldy, uphill, vexatious, wearing, wearisome, wearying, weighty, windless, wretched
