Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To force, drive, or constrain: Duty compelled the soldiers to volunteer for the mission.
- v. To necessitate or pressure by force; exact: An energy crisis compels fuel conservation. See Synonyms at force.
- v. To exert a strong, irresistible force on; sway: "The land, in a certain, very real way, compels the minds of the people” ( Barry Lopez).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To drive or urge with force or irresistibly; constrain; oblige; coerce, by either physical or moral force: as, circumstances compel us to practise economy.
- To subject; force to submit; subdue.
- To take by force or violence; wrest; extort.
- To drive together; unite by force; gather in a crowd or company; herd.
- To overpower; overcome; control.
Wiktionary
- v. transitive, archaic (literally) To drive together, round up
- v. transitive To overpower; to subdue
- v. transitive To force, constrain or coerce
- v. transitive To exact, extort, (make) produce by force
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To drive or urge with force, or irresistibly; to force; to constrain; to oblige; to necessitate, either by physical or moral force.
- v. rare To take by force or violence; to seize; to exact; to extort.
- v. To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
- v. A Latinism To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
- v. obsolete To call forth; to summon.
- v. To make one yield or submit.
WordNet 3.0
- v. force somebody to do something
- v. necessitate or exact
Etymologies
- From Middle English compellen, from Middle French compellir, from Latin compellere, itself from com- ("together") + pellere ("to drive"). Displaced native Middle English fordriven ("to drive out, to lead to, to compel, to force"). More at fordrive. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English compellen, from Latin compellere : com-, com- + pellere, to drive; see pel-5 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“‘Certainly,’ replied Traddles; ‘but, in the meanwhile, and until everything is done to our satisfaction, we shall maintain possession of these things; and beg you — in short, compel you — to keep to your own room, and hold no communication with anyone.’”
“Certainly,' replied Traddles; 'but, in the meanwhile, and until everything is done to our satisfaction, we shall maintain possession of these things; and beg you-in short, compel you-to keep to your own room, and hold no communication with anyone.”
“Certainly,' replied Traddles; 'but, in the meanwhile, and until everything is done to our satisfaction, we shall maintain possession of these things; and beg you - in short, compel you - to keep to your own room, and hold no communication with anyone.”
“That there is only one choice, his choice, and that he stood ready to "compel" - his word, not mine - people to follow Jesus.”
“From the tenor of Obama's recent words about Afghanistan, one would suppose he is doing the best he thinks possible now -- namely, getting out -- but at the speed his domestic opponents compel, that is, more slowly than he knows it would be right to do.”
“If your poverty of expression compel you to make any distinction between the two, we would certainly recommend your bestowing more admiration on his garden than his wine.”
“Nor will there ever be an administration in Washington ready to do diplomatically what none has ever dared do since 1947, namely compel Israel to make an equitable peace with the Arabs.”
“compelling: does the idea compel you to explore it further?”
“Stewart was able to "compel" Yoo to testify in the court of public opinion because Yoo needed the Daily Show to help sell his new book.”
Will Bunch: When Your Nation's Only Accountability Is a Late-Night Comedian
“Spokesman: Pentagon could "compel" WikiLeaks to stop releasing documents.”
The Huffington Post: Washington Names Al Qaeda In Pakistan Top Terror Threat
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘compel’.
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writing first chapter
revolve, vital, necessity, depict, archery, indegenous, native, lacrosse, similarly, recess, composition, indicator and 91 more...
-
sort of sexy
pressure, press, urgency, squeezing, influence, compel, push, tease, thrust, full, drive, urge on and 99 more...
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ff
attribute, sticking, distinct, perseverance, trend, clarify, avoidant, ambivalent, disoriented, cling, prompting, appositive and 94 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Having: C; m; e
Goodies pulled from a list I've compiled of most-every word having these letters in common — It's going take to take a long, long time to actually get through (and I may want to extend it lat...
chamber, chimney, compesce, imperch, ipom�ic, lambency, premier cru, recumbence, simnelcake, succumbence, umbeschew, almacle and 631 more...
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2011 July
New words
correspondent, promulgate, transgress, trite, ravine, corespondent, contrivance, contrive, expedient, conducive, clairvoyance, difform and 184 more...
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supplementary
for enhancement of any English test
consanguineous, worldly, naiveté, enshroud, pernicious, prerogative, traitor, fledgling, vengeance, provision, furnish, quarrel and 94 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, C
cryptoxanthin, convent, calcar, chuckle, campanile, covet, complexion, campestral, chirography, counterscarp, caliginous, catabolism and 722 more...
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bobodod's Words
cultie, screwery, gauge, wanker, truthiness, harangue, mediocre, ragamuffin, elysian, spoonerism, loquacious, apostle and 240 more...
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@vcb.etym.prjct - SAT PT #5 (new bk)
inane, scrutinze, attended, testify to, jeopardize, sustain, plentiful, ornate, multifarious, catalogue, anachronistic, extrapolate and 89 more...
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New Words
smarmy, purge, linger, shimmer, fiercely, frantically, shove, grunt, errand, clench, wriggle, squeeze and 168 more...
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Bram Stoker's Dracula
Words used in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
decadence, emancipation, nostalgia, abounded, modernity, revolution, famine, conservative, privy, vied, nascent, correspondence and 211 more...
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Watchmen (2009)
Words from 2009 'Watchmen' film.
adversary, certitude, deterrent, stockpile, posturing, minuteman, vigilante, toss, flip, spook, carcass, tread and 174 more...
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Letters placed perfectly together; sh...
words that make me smile, letters placed so beautifully together, and should be used more often :o)
rubbish, fond, darling, busker, fetch, furthermore, lad, compel, supernal, elysium
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Poetrie: The Poems I Have Not Written
by John Brehm
I’m so wildly unprolific, the poems
I have not written would reach
from here to the California coast
if you laid them end to end.
And if ...describe, imagine, failed, sweep, divert, reproof, lingering, flutelike, interrogation, stately, intersecting, slick and 23 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for compel.
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