decompress

From de- +‎ compress.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /diːkəmˈpɹɛs/

decompress (third-person singular simple present decompresses, present participle decompressing, simple past and past participle decompressed)

1. (transitive) To relieve the pressure or compression on something.
2. (transitive) To bring someone (such as a diver) back to normal atmospheric pressure after being exposed to high pressure.
3. (transitive, computing) To restore (compressed data) to its original form.

   Synonyms: unzip, uncompress

4. (intransitive) To adjust to normal atmospheric pressure after being exposed to high pressure.
   • 1989, James Cameron, The Abyss (motion picture), spoken by Lindsey Brigman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio):

     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.

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

     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.

5. (intransitive, informal) To relax.
   • 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]:

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

• compress

• compressed