From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Depression \De*pres"sion\, noun [L. depressio: cf. F. d['e]pression.]
1. The act of depressing.
2. The state of being depressed; a sinking.
3. A falling in of the surface; a sinking below its true place; a cavity or hollow; as, roughness consists in little protuberances and depressions.
4. Humiliation; abasement, as of pride.
5. Dejection; despondency; lowness.
In a great depression of spirit. --Baker.
6. Diminution, as of trade, etc.; inactivity; dullness.
7. (Astron.) The angular distance of a celestial object below the horizon.
8. (Math.) The operation of reducing to a lower degree; -- said of equations.
9. (Surg.) A method of operating for cataract; couching. See {Couch}, verb (used with an object), 8.
{Angle of depression} (Geod.), one which a descending line makes with a horizontal plane.
{Depression of the dewpoint} (Meteor.), the number of degrees that the dew-point is lower than the actual temperature of the atmosphere.
{Depression of the pole}, its apparent sinking, as the spectator goes toward the equator.
{Depression of the visible horizon}. (Astron.) Same as {Dip of the horizon}, under {Dip}.
Syn: Abasement; reduction; sinking; fall; humiliation; dejection; melancholy.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: a mental state characterized by a pessimistic sense of inadequacy and a despondent lack of activity [ant: {elation}]
2: a long-term economic state characterized by unemployment and low prices and low levels of trade and investment [syn: {slump}, {economic crisis}]
3: a sunken or depressed geological formation [syn: {natural depression}] [ant: {natural elevation}]
4: sad feelings of gloom and inadequacy
5: a time period during the 1930s when there was a worldwide economic depression and mass unemployment [syn: {the Depression}, {the Great Depression}]
6: an air mass of lower pressure; often brings precipitation; "a low moved in over night bringing sleet and snow" [syn: {low}, {low pressure}]
7: a state of depression and anhedonia so severe as to require clinical intervention [syn: {depressive disorder}, {clinical depression}]
8: a concavity in a surface produced by pressing; "he left the impression of his fingers in the soft mud" [syn: {impression}, {imprint}]
9: angular distance below the horizon (especially of a celestial object)
10: pushing down; "depression of the space bar on the typewriter"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
259 Moby Thesaurus words for "depression": Schmerz, Slough of Despond, abatement, abridgment, abstraction, abulia, aching heart, agony, agony of mind, alienation, alleviation, alveolation, alveolus, anguish, antrum, anxiety, anxiety equivalent, anxiety state, apathy, armpit, attenuation, bad times, bale, basin, bitterness, blank despondency, blaze, bleakness, bleeding heart, blues, boom, bottoming out, bowl, broken heart, business cycle, business fluctuations, bust, catatonic stupor, cavity, cheerlessness, cleft, comfortlessness, compulsion, concave, concavity, contraction, cooling off, couchancy, crater, crena, crisis, crushing, crypt, cup, cut, dampening, damping, death wish, debasement, decrease, decrement, decrescence, deduction, deepening, deflation, dejectedness, dejection, dent, depreciation, depth of misery, desolation, despair, despondency, despondentness, detachment, digging, diminishment, diminution, dimple, dip, discomfort, discouragement, disheartenment, dismalness, dispiritedness, distress, distressfulness, down trip, downcastness, downer, downheartedness, downturn, dreariness, drilling, drooping spirits, dying, dying off, economic cycle, economic expansion, economic growth, economic stagnation, elation, emotionalism, euphoria, evil day, excavation, expanding economy, expansion, extenuation, extremity, fade-out, fold, folie du doute, follicle, funnel chest, gash, gloom, gloominess, glumness, grief, grievousness, growth, hack, hard times, heartache, heartlessness, heavy heart, heavy weather, high growth rate, hole, hollow, hollow shell, hollowness, hopelessness, hypochondria, hysteria, hysterics, impression, incision, incurvation, incurvature, incurvity, indentation, indifference, infelicity, insensibility, jag, jog, joggle, joylessness, kerf, lacuna, lamentability, lamentation, languishment, lessening, lethargy, letup, low, low spirits, lowering, lowness, lowness of spirit, lying, lying down, malaise, mania, market expansion, melancholia, melancholy, mental distress, miniaturization, mining, misery, mitigation, mournfulness, nick, nock, notch, obsession, oppression, pain, painfulness, pathological indecisiveness, pathos, peak, peaking, pessimism, pit, pitiability, pitiableness, pitifulness, pocket, poignancy, preoccupation, probing, proneness, prosperity, prostration, psychalgia, psychomotor disturbance, punch bowl, rainy day, recess, recession, reclining, recovery, recumbency, reduction, regrettableness, relaxation, sad times, sadness, sagging, scaling down, scoop, score, scotch, self-destructive urge, sharpness, shell, shortness, simplicity, sink, sinkage, sinking, sinking heart, sinus, slowdown, slump, socket, sorrowfulness, spiritlessness, squatness, squattiness, stormy weather, stumpiness, stupor, subjacency, subtraction, suicidal despair, supineness, taedium vitae, the blues, tic, trough, tunneling, twitching, unhappiness, unresponsiveness, upturn, vug, weakening, weariness of life, withdrawal, woe, woebegoneness, woefulness, wretchedness
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