5  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Compress  \Com*press"\,  v.  t.  [imp.  &  p.  p.  {Compressed};  p.  pr  & 
  vb  n.  {Compressing}.]  [L.  compressus  p.  p.  of  comprimere  to 
  compress:  com-  +  premere  to  press.  See  Press.] 
  1.  To  press  or  squeeze  together;  to  force  into  a  narrower 
  compass;  to  reduce  the  volume  of  by  pressure;  to  compact; 
  to  condense;  as  to  compress  air  or  water. 
 
  Events  of  centuries  .  .  .  compressed  within  the 
  compass  of  a  single  life.  --D.  Webster. 
 
  The  same  strength  of  expression,  though  more 
  compressed,  runs  through  his  historical  harangues. 
  --Melmoth. 
 
  2.  To  embrace  sexually.  [Obs.]  --Pope. 
 
  Syn:  To  crowd;  squeeze;  condense;  reduce;  abridge. 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  Compress  \Com"press\,  n.  [F.  compresse.]  (Surg.) 
  A  folded  piece  of  cloth,  pledget  of  lint,  etc.,  used  to  cover 
  the  dressing  of  wounds,  and  so  placed  as  by  the  aid  of  a 
  bandage,  to  make  due  pressure  on  any  part 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  compress 
  n  :  a  cloth  pad  or  dressing  (with  or  without  medication)  applied 
  firmly  to  some  part  of  the  body  (to  relieve  discomfort  or 
  reduce  fever) 
  v  1:  make  more  compact  by  or  as  if  by  pressing;  "compress  the 
  data"  [syn:  {compact},  {pack  together}] 
  2:  squeeze  or  press  together;  "she  compressed  her  lips"  [syn:  {constrict}, 
  {squeeze},  {compact},  {contract},  {press}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  compress  [Unix]  vt  When  used  without  a  qualifier,  generally 
  refers  to  {crunch}ing  of  a  file  using  a  particular  C  implementation 
  of  compression  by  Joseph  M.  Orost  et  al  and  widely  circulated  via 
  {Usenet};  use  of  {crunch}  itself  in  this  sense  is  rare  among  Unix  hackers. 
  Specifically,  compress  is  built  around  the  Lempel-Ziv-Welch  algorithm 
  as  described  in  "A  Technique  for  High  Performance  Data  Compression", 
  Terry  A.  Welch,  "IEEE  Computer",  vol.  17,  no  6  (June  1984),  pp  8-19. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  compress 
 
    When  used  without  a  qualifier,  generally 
  refers  to  {compression}  of  a  file  using  a  particular  {C} 
  implementation  of  compression  for  {Unix}  by  Joseph  M.  Orost, 
  James  A.  Woods  et  al  widely  circulated  via  {Usenet}. 
  compress  uses  the  {Lempel-Ziv  Welch}  {algorithm}  and  normally 
  produces  files  with  the  suffix  ".Z". 
 
  Compress  uses  variable  length  codes.  Initially,  nine  bit 
  codes  are  output  until  they  are  all  used  When  this  occurs, 
  ten  bit  codes  are  used  and  so  on  until  an  implementation 
  dependent  maximum  is  reached. 
 
  After  every  10  kilobytes  of  input  the  compression  ratio  is 
  checked.  If  it  is  descreasing  then  the  entire  string  table  is 
  discarded  and  information  is  collected  from  scratch. 
 
  Compress  has  been  largely  supplanted  by  {gzip}. 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (2001-01-30) 
 
 

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