pressure Copy link Outline I. Pressing, loadingII. Fig., of trying circumstancesIII. Variety and urgency of business • pressure: I. Pressing, loading: pressio (rare), and in oblique cases, pressus, ūs: to move the end of a lever by p. downwards, caput vectis pressione in imum (movere), Vitr. 10, 3 (8), 3: to thrust off all p. of weights, omnem p. ponderum depellere, Cic. Tusc. 2, 23, 54. Rarely pressura in precisely this sense: Apul.: v. pressing (subs.). Phr.: to condense cheese by p., caseum ponderibus condensare, Col. 7, 8, med.: a still more powerful p. is applied, (caseus) vehementius premitur, ib.: the lower air is condensed by the p. of that which is above, *densior fit aer infra, illius qui supra est aëris pondere pressus. II. Fig., of trying circumstances: Phr.: under the (increasing) p. of age, ingravescente aetate, cf. Cic. Sen. 2, 6: to feel the p. of foreign or civil war, externis, domesticis hostibus laborare, id. Br. 1, 10, init.: on account of the p. of debt, propter magnitudinem aeris alieni, Sall. Cat. 33: suffering (severely) from the p. of debt, oppressus aere alieno, Cic. Cat. 2, 4, extr.: under p. of circumstances, inopia coactus, Ter. Andr. 1, 1, 45: cf. hac necessitate coactus, Nep. Them. 8: suffering under the p. of many evils and difficulties, multis incommodis difficultatibusque affectus, Cic. Div. Verr. 3, 8. III. Variety and urgency of business: Phr.: such is the p. of (my) business, ita officio distringor, cf. Plin. Ep. 1, 10, 9, cf. Phaedr. 4, 26, 3, distringit quem multarum rerum varietas.