Coercion
[kəʊ'ɜːʃ(ə)n] or [ko'ɝʒən]
Definition
(n.) The act or process of coercing.
(n.) The application to another of either physical or moral force. When the force is physical, and cannot be resisted, then the act produced by it is a nullity, so far as concerns the party coerced. When the force is moral, then the act, though voidable, is imputable to the party doing it, unless he be so paralyzed by terror as to act convulsively. At the same time coercion is not negatived by the fact of submission under force. "Coactus volui" (I consented under compulsion) is the condition of mind which, when there is volition forced by coercion, annuls the result of such coercion.
Edited by Gillian
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Restraint, check, curb.[2]. Compulsion, constraint.
Checked by Flossie
Examples
- The coercion, if mild, was complete. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Activity carried on under conditions of external pressure or coercion is not carried on for any significance attached to the doing. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- The cures he prescribed were vigorous government interference, strict magisterial vigilance; when necessary, prompt military coercion. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- But the men, having got a little more wages, thought they would try coercion and get a little more, as we were considered soft marks. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- The doubtful legitimacy of such rough coercion did not disturb the mind of Venn. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- I will not have it cast in my teeth, at some future day, that Madame Fosco acted under my coercion, and was, in plain fact, no witness at all. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- I had known, from the time when I could speak, that my sister, in her capricious and violent coercion, was unjust to me. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
Checker: Muriel