Emily Dickinson Lexicon

PRESS, n. [It. pressa, haste, hurry, a crowd; Sp. sprensa; Fr. presse, pressoir; Sw. präss; Dan. and G. presse.]

1. An instrument or machine by which any body is squeezed, crushed or forced into more compact form; as, a winepress, ciderpress, or cheese-press.
2. A machine for printing; a printing-press. Great improvements have been lately made in the construction of presses.
3. The art or business of printing and publishing. A free press is a great blessing to a free people; a licentious press is a curse to society.
4. A crowd; a throng; a multitude of individuals crowded together. And when they could not come nigh to him for the press. – Mark ii.
5. The act of urging or pushing forward. Which in their throng and press to the last hold, / Confound themselves. – Shak.
6. A wine-vat or cistern. – Hag. ii.
7. A case or closet for the safe keeping of garments. – Shak.
8. Urgency; urgent demands of affairs; as, a press of business.
9. A commission to force men into public service, particularly into the navy; for impress. – Ralegh. Press of sail, in navigation, is as much sail as the state of the wind will permit. – Mar. Dict. Liberty of the press, in civil policy, is the free right of publishing books, pamphlets or papers without previous restraint; or the unrestrained right which every citizen enjoys of publishing his thoughts and opinions, subject only to punishment for publishing what is pernicious to morals or to the peace of the state.