Compel
[kəm'pel] or [kəm'pɛl]
Definition
(verb.) force somebody to do something; 'We compel all students to fill out this form'.
(verb.) necessitate or exact; 'the water shortage compels conservation'.
Checker: Witt--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To drive or urge with force, or irresistibly; to force; to constrain; to oblige; to necessitate, either by physical or moral force.
(v. t.) To take by force or violence; to seize; to exact; to extort.
(v. t.) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
(v. t.) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
(v. t.) To call forth; to summon.
(v. i.) To make one yield or submit.
Editor: Milton
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Force, oblige, constrain, coerce, drive, necessitate.
Edited by Christine
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Force, oblige, drive, constrain, necessitate, make, coerce, bind
ANT:Persuade, convince, coax, allure, egg, induce, tempt, seduce, acquit, cozen,liberate, release
Editor: Warren
Definition
v.t. to drive or urge on forcibly: to oblige: to force: to obtain by hard labour:—pr.p. compel′ling; pa.p. compelled′.—adj. Compel′lable.
Checker: Victoria
Examples
- What should I do--how should I act now, this very day, if I could clutch my own pain, and compel it to silence, and think of those three? George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- We determined therefore to go on unless stopped by a force sufficient to compel obedience. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- I am not interested in the marriage, and even if I were I could not compel Mr. Wildeve to do my bidding. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- I would rather not have gone into this question at present, but you compel me. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Were Britain a serfdom and you the Czar, you could not _compel_ me to this step. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Law itself should not compel me. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- Pennsylvania Assembly has made such a law; New-York Assembly has refused to do it; and now all the talk here is, of sending a force to compel them. Benjamin Franklin. Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin.
- The first wave is past, and the argument is compelled to admit that men and women have common duties and pursuits. Plato. The Republic.
- This work proved too hard, his health broke down, and he was compelled to give up the position. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Then I was compelled to change my plans and go upward in the air where real estate was cheap. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- For once I must, was the answer; and if I had not slipped aside and kept out of his way, he would have compelled me to this second performance. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- If Napoleon had deemed it best to have continued his journey across the Atlantic to America he would have been compelled to pass several weeks on an uncomfortable sailing vessel. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- We picture political institutions as mechanically constructed contrivances within which the nation's life is contained and compelled to approximate some abstract idea of justice or liberty. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Pirates now filled the field, and the lawsuits which they were compelled to bring to defend themselves went against them. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- Well, that is generous, said Mr. Farebrother, compelling himself to approve of the man whom he disliked. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- He turned and looked about him, sternly compelling himself to regain his consciousness of outward things. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- That future greatness had always been in his thoughts, and had been one of the compelling powers in his great chemical discoveries. Rupert S. Holland. Historic Inventions.
- I hope, in that case, all my impulses will be strong in compelling me to love. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- It was compelling fortune, he felt. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- The first represented the decision-compelling spirit, the second the spirit of risking little to gain a little. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- In that case, who was the likeliest person to possess the power of compelling her to remain at Welmingham? Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Excuse me, he continued: necessity compels me to make you useful. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Mechanical inventions suggest a change: a dispossessed class compels it. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- By means of this method one high-class clock, usually in an astronomical observatory, compels a number of other clocks at considerable distances to keep time with it. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- In a rough way and with many exceptions, democracy compels law to approximate human need. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- Ay, answered Isaac, but if the tyrant lays hold on them as he did to-day, and compels me to smile while he is robbing me? Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- To this question a strict regard for truth compels the answer that they have not been benefited at all, not to the extent of a single dollar, so far as cash damages are concerned. Frank Lewis Dyer. Edison, His Life and Inventions.
- Those again who are forced, are those whom the violence of some pain or grief compels to change their opinion. Plato. The Republic.
Editor: Terence