urge

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To force or drive forward or onward; impel.
2. v. To entreat earnestly and often repeatedly; exhort.
3. v. To advocate earnestly the doing, consideration, or approval of; press for: urge passage of the bill; a speech urging moderation.
4. v. To stimulate; excite: "It urged him to an intensity like madness” ( D.H. Lawrence).
5. v. To move or impel to action, effort, or speed; spur.
6. v. To exert an impelling force; push vigorously.
7. v. To present a forceful argument, claim, or case.
8. n. The act of urging.
9. n. An impulse that prompts action or effort: suppressed an urge to laugh.
10. n. An involuntary tendency to perform a given activity; an instinct: "There is a human urge to clarify, rationalize, justify” ( Leonard Bernstein).

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To press; impel; force onward.
2. To hasten laboriously; quicken with effort.
3. To press the mind or will of; serve as a motive or impelling cause; impel; constrain; spur.
4. To press or ply hard with arguments, entreaties, or the like; request with earnestness; importune; solicit earnestly.
5. To press upon attention; present in an earnest manner; press by way of argument or in opposition; insist on; allege in extenuation, justification, or defense: as, to urge an argument; to urge the necessity of a case.
6. To ply hard in a contest or an argument; attack briskly.
7. To provoke; incite; exasperate.
8. To press on or forward.
9. To incite; stimulate; impel.
10. To make a claim; insist; persist.
11. To produce arguments or proofs; make allegations; declare.
12. n. The act of urging; impulse.

Wiktionary

1. n. A strong desire; an itch to do something.
2. v. transitive To press; to push; to drive; to impel; to force onward.
3. v. transitive To press the mind or will of; to ply with motives, arguments, persuasion, or importunity.
4. v. transitive To provoke; to exasperate.
5. v. transitive To present in an urgent manner; to insist upon.
6. v. transitive (obsolete): To treat with forcible means; to take severe or violent measures with; as, to urge an ore with intense heat.
7. v. transitive To press onward or forward.
8. v. transitive To be pressing in argument; to insist; to persist.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To press; to push; to drive; to impel; to force onward.
2. v. To press the mind or will of; to ply with motives, arguments, persuasion, or importunity.
3. v. rare To provoke; to exasperate.
4. v. To press hard upon; to follow closely.
5. v. To present in an urgent manner; to press upon attention; to insist upon
6. v. To treat with forcible means; to take severe or violent measures with.
7. v. rare To press onward or forward.
8. v. To be pressing in argument; to insist; to persist.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a strong restless desire
2. v. spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts
3. v. force or impel in an indicated direction
4. v. push for something
5. n. an instinctive motive