1. in classical psychoanalytic theory and other forms of depth psychology, the basic defense mechanism that excludes painful experiences and unacceptable impulses from consciousness. Repression operates on an unconscious level as a protection against anxiety produced by objectionable sexual wishes, feelings of hostility, and ego-threatening experiences and memories of all kinds. It also comes into play in many other forms of defense, as in denial, in which individuals avoid unpleasant realities by first trying to repress them and then negating them when repression fails. See primary repression; repression proper.

2. the oppression or exclusion of individuals or groups through limitations on their personal rights and liberties.

3. more generally, the process of restricting, restraining, or subduing something or someone. Compare suppression. —repress vb.