decompressv.
/diːkəmˈprɛs/ transitive. To relieve or reduce pressure.
a. To subject (a diver, etc.) to decompression; to reduce the pressure of the air or other gas in. Also absol.
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the world > matter > gas > air > [verb (transitive)] > compress, etc. (air, gas, or container)
compressa1676
recompress1873
decompress1905
pressurize1940
depressurize1944
repressurize1947
pressure1961
1905 Jrnl. Physiol. 33 Suppl. p. vi We placed rats in 10–15 or 20 atmospheres of air.., and then decompressed them in about three seconds.
1909 G. W. M. Boycott Compressed Air Work i. 2 When decompressing from great depths or high pressures after short exposures, the saturation..is obviated by the first rapid drop in pressure.
1909 G. W. M. Boycott Compressed Air Work i. 12 When a worker is suddenly decompressed by some such accident..he should immediately be placed in the air-lock.
1911 Engineer 10 Mar. 243/1 To decompress slowly but continuously.
1925 Literary Digest 27 June 24/1 When they have finished their labors, it is necessary that they be ‘decomprest’, that is, slowly restored to normal air conditions.
1925 Literary Digest 27 June 24/1 The two air-locks..are used in putting the comprest-air workers gradually under pressure and for decompressing them after they have finished work.
1962 J. Glenn in J. Glenn et al. Into Orbit 41 You have one large handle for repressurizing the cabin with oxygen in case of a bad leak, plus another handle to decompress it..in case of fire. (Decompression—or getting rid of the oxygen—is the quickest way to put out a fire.)
b. Surgery. To relieve excessive internal pressure in (a part of the body) by surgical means.
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1914 A. P. C. Ashhurst Surgery xvii. 574 The most imperative indication is to ‘decompress’ the brain by removing some of the overlying cranium.
1954 E. L. Farquharson Textbk. Oper. Surg. xxv. 708 When the bladder has been chronically distended over a period of several days..it should be decompressed gradually.
1967 T. J. McNair Bailey's Emergency Surg. (ed. 8) lxxxviii. 970 Grossly distended intestine is decompressed by the method of Savage.
Draft additions September 2003
transitive and intransitive. Originally and chiefly North American. To relieve (emotional or mental pressure); spec. (of a person) to recover (oneself) from stress; to relax, unwind.
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1951 N.Y. Times Bk. Rev. 4 Feb. (advt.) Is five years of retirement enough for you? Keeping active in your retirement. ‘Decompressing’ yourself before retirement.
1969 Guardian Weekly 7 Aug. 24/5 The Kremlin cannot be sure that a spark might not, suddenly, appear from somewhere. It can try either to decompress the tension, or to act ‘firmly’ and thus increase it.
1972 S. Brand in Rolling Stone 7 Dec. 54/3 He spent a year at Utah decompressing from the Pentagon.
1987 New Yorker 9 Feb. 41/2 He'd be giving up his post about that time, and a sail across the Pacific would be just what he needed to decompress.
2003 Shape Jan. 62/2 5 p.m. Start to decompress and make plans for tomorrow, so stress is reduced... Instead of thinking that you'll use this time to begin an important project, use it..to simply brainstorm.
Draft additions June 2004
transitive. Computing and Electronics. To restore (a previously compressed file or digital signal) to its original state, or to an expanded state approximating this. Cf. compress v. Additions d.
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1967 C. M. Kortman in IEEE Spectrum Mar. 137/1 A final factor to consider is that of ‘decompressing’ the data—that is, at the receiving end of the link, either restoring the data to its original form, or putting it into a form suitable for its end use.
1979 J. B. Postel Request for Comments (Network Working Group) (Electronic text) No. 753. 9 On the receiving side, the message is first decompressed then decoded from the data element representation to the local representation for the processing routines.
2001 Daily Tel. 18 Dec. 26/5 It's also responsible for compressing and decompressing data, which helps speed up the flow of information.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online December 2019).
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