decompress

present singular third person decompresses · participle present decompressing · participle past decompressed · past decompressed

1. transitiveTo relieve the pressure or compression on something.

   Antonyms: compress

2. transitiveTo bring someone (such as a diver) back to normal atmospheric pressure after being exposed to high pressure.
3. transitivecomputingTo restore (compressed data) to its original form.

   Synonyms: unzip, uncompress

4. intransitiveTo adjust to normal atmospheric pressure after being exposed to high pressure.

   The bad news is we got eight hours in this can blowin' down… And the worse news is, it's gonna take us three weeks to decompress later.

   1989, James Cameron, The Abyss (motion picture), spoken by Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio)

   1 more example

   There was a typical reef construction here with large plating corals at deeper depths. Thankfully, again there were many new corals. We decompressed for several minutes before boarding. Then Mike really got sick. He skipped the next dive.

   2011, Max Gallimore, From Here to Caprock, page 354

5. figurativelyinformalintransitiveTo relax.

   [T]he idea began before lockdown, when he went on holiday to Thailand to decompress from the pressures of life in the music industry.

   2025 August 10, Shaad D'Souza, “‘I didn’t realise pigs were like, massive’: the London rapper who fell in love with farming”, in The Guardian

   1 more example

   What does his wife, music teacher Caroline, think about his retiring to a quiet life in Wantage? "I think she's a bit dewy-eyed. She thinks it's going to be nice to spend more time with me. I have to take time to decompress from a job like this for so long, but coming from that to doing nothing would be very unhealthy."

   2025 September 17, Paul Clifton, “"You don't get the luxury of self-pity in this job, because the machine is continuing to churn problems at me" says Sir Andrew Haines”, in RAIL, number 1044, page 28