Compulsion
[kəm'pʌlʃ(ə)n] or [kəm'pʌlʃən]
Definition
(noun.) using force to cause something to occur; 'though pressed into rugby under compulsion I began to enjoy the game'; 'they didn't have to use coercion'.
(noun.) an urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid; 'he felt a compulsion to babble on about the accident'.
(noun.) an irrational motive for performing trivial or repetitive actions, even against your will; 'her compulsion to wash her hands repeatedly'.
Checked by Casey--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The act of compelling, or the state of being compelled; the act of driving or urging by force or by physical or moral constraint; subjection to force.
Typist: Melville
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. Coercion, constraint, application of force.
Typist: Oliver
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:For, ce, restraint, control, coercion
ANT:Persuasion, coaxing, alluring, Inducing
Checked by Andrew
Unserious Contents or Definition
n. The eloquence of power.
Typist: Phil
Examples
- Bodily exercise, when compulsory, does no harm to the body; but knowledge which is acquired under compulsion obtains no hold on the mind. Plato. The Republic.
- Upon this compulsion, Mr. Godfrey made an effort, and came out with a new and amended version of the affair, to the following effect. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- So, Pilar said and her voice was warm and friendly and there was no compulsion in it. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- For if he will not yield to opinion, there follows the gentle compulsion of exile or death. Plato. The Republic.
- Her grave sweet eyes met his; there was no compulsion, only deep interest in them. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- When you come to fix your memory with a date in this way, it is wonderful what your memory will pick up for you upon that compulsion. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Yorkshire people are as yielding to persuasion as they are stubborn against compulsion. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Except on military compulsion, I am not a man of business. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- He drew it under the sleeve of his mulberry-coloured great-coat, and I walked on, almost upon compulsion, arm-in-arm with him. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- Reverence for the hallowed Past and its traditions keeps the dismal fashion in force now that the compulsion exists no longer. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- He wanted so much to be free, not under the compulsion of any need for unification, or tortured by unsatisfied desire. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- Why have I told, as if upon compulsion, what I knew all along I ought to have withheld? Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- Compulsion is flint and a blow to the metal of some souls. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Like Balaam and other unwilling prophets, the agents seem moved by an inner compulsion to say and do their allotted parts whether they will or no. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
Checker: Mimi