Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of compelling.
  • noun The state of being compelled.
  • noun An irresistible impulse to act, regardless of the rationality of the motivation.
  • noun An act or acts performed in response to such an impulse.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The application (to a person) of superior force, physical or moral, overpowering or overruling his preferences; the force applied; constraint, physical or moral.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An irrational need to perform some action, often despite negative consequences.
  • noun The use of authority, influence, or other power to force (compel) a person or persons to act.
  • noun The lawful use of violence (i.e. by the administration).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an irrational motive for performing trivial or repetitive actions, even against your will
  • noun an urge to do or say something that might be better left undone or unsaid
  • noun using force to cause something to occur

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin compulsiō, compulsiōn-, from Latin compulsus, past participle of compellere, to compel; see compel.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Latin compulsiō, from Latin compellere ("to compel, coerce"); see compel.

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Examples

  • But that their realization requires compulsion, and _compulsion in the form of a dictatorship_, is ordinarily not comprehended.

    Bolshevism The Enemy of Political and Industrial Democracy John Spargo 1921

  • Because I realize that the compulsion is almost irresistable.

    And so it begins. coffeeem 2008

  • But Faust cannot turn away from the awful figure of his lost love, and his compulsion is the sign that he has not abandoned his inspiration.

    The Beauty of the Medusa: A Study in Romantic Literary Iconology 1972

  • So the learning process, that interaction between humans and between us and our environment, that complicated psychological and cultural practice, that dance of motivation and compulsion, is being handcuffed into narrow moments of transmission -- the downloading of facts.

    Rick Ayers: It's Time to Decriminalize Learning Rick Ayers 2010

  • So the learning process, that interaction between humans and between us and our environment, that complicated psychological and cultural practice, that dance of motivation and compulsion, is being handcuffed into narrow moments of transmission -- the downloading of facts.

    Rick Ayers: It's Time to Decriminalize Learning Rick Ayers 2010

  • Spot on where the distinction between a new ‘right’ and a compulsion is concerned.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Our Rights are Threatened by All These New Rights 2009

  • Of any thing worth having, compulsion is a most unsuitable instrument for conveying it to mankind.

    Letter 111 2009

  • The compulsion is just that, an involuntary urge which has nothing to do with choice: a deep, sometimes desperate need to order the universe, usually as an anxiety reaction, which sometimes comes to rule the person's life.

    Counting Your Way to Safety Heather McDougal 2008

  • The compulsion is just that, an involuntary urge which has nothing to do with choice: a deep, sometimes desperate need to order the universe, usually as an anxiety reaction, which sometimes comes to rule the person's life.

    Archive 2008-04-01 Heather McDougal 2008

  • You fail to appreciate that our President is under compulsion from a higher authority than even our Holy Constition.

    Is That Legal?: Sleep Deprivation - Movie Style: Stalag 17 2006

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