Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.

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.

Source : WordNet®

compress
     v 1: make more compact by or as if by pressing; "compress the
          data" [syn: {compact}, {pack together}] [ant: {decompress}]
     2: squeeze or press together; "she compressed her lips"; "the
        spasm contracted the muscle" [syn: {constrict}, {squeeze},
         {compact}, {contract}, {press}]

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)

Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

compress
     
        1. To feed data through any {compression} {algorithm}.
     
        2.  The {Unix} program "compress", now largely
        supplanted by {gzip}.
     
        Unix compress was written in {C} by Joseph M. Orost, James
        A. Woods et al., and was widely circulated via {Usenet}.  It
        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 decreasing then the entire string table is
        discarded and information is collected from scratch.