Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To cause (someone) to accept a point of view or to undertake a course of action by means of argument, reasoning, or entreaty.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Persuasion.
- To advise; counsel; urge the acceptance or practice of; commend by exposition, argument, demonstration, etc.; inculcate.
- To lead to the opinion or conclusion (that); make (one) believe or think: frequently followed by that.
- To prevail upon, as by demonstration, exposition, argument, entreaty, expostulation, etc.; argue or reason into a certain belief or course of conduct; induce; win over.
- To convince, as by argument or reasons offered.
- Synonyms Convince, Persuade (see
convince ), prevail on,lead. - To use persuasion.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To influence or gain over by argument, advice, entreaty, expostulation, etc.; to draw or incline to a determination by presenting sufficient motives.
- transitive verb Obsolescent To try to influence.
- transitive verb To convince by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe.
- transitive verb To inculcate by argument or expostulation; to advise; to recommend.
- noun obsolete Persuasion.
- intransitive verb To use persuasion; to plead; to prevail by persuasion.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb transitive To successfully convince (someone) to
agree to,accept , or do something, usually through reasoning and verbal influence. Comparesway . - verb transitive, dialectal To
urge ,plead ; to try toconvince (someone to do something).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb cause somebody to adopt a certain position, belief, or course of action; twist somebody's arm
- verb win approval or support for
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word persuade.
Examples
-
The only people this movie might * possibly* persuade is people who were already on the fence and don't really care about any glaring ommissions from the film.
Last Night's Movie 2004
-
He liked seemed taken aback at that; but he would fain persuade me 'at the rector was only in jest; and when that wouldn't do, he says,
Agnes Grey 1931
-
The new Book is going on at a regular rate; and I would fain persuade myself that/his/health and spirits are at the same regular rate improving: more contented he certainly is, since he applied himself to this task; for he was not born to be anything but miserable in idleness.
-
The central insight from which Campbell is working is that the orator seeks to persuade people, and in general the best way to persuade is to produce perspicuous arguments.
Scottish Philosophy in the 18th Century Broadie, Alexander 2009
-
But the only power Bandow has is the power to persuade, which is in no way enhanced by such antics.
From the WSJ Opinion Archives James Taranto 2007
-
He now had a way to achieve that objective, namely, persuade Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
Turmoil and Triumph George P. Shultz 1993
-
He now had a way to achieve that objective, namely, persuade Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
Turmoil and Triumph George P. Shultz 1993
-
-- a kindly means of saving faces for those whom he and I were going to "persuade" -- of making the "climb-down" easier for them!
Angels & Ministers Laurence Housman 1912
-
The legislators -- who represent parts of the 12th District -- and Mitchell were among those who tried during a Saturday conference call persuade Barrow to reconsider his vote.
The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com Howie Klein 2010
-
Slide 3: Definition & Importance of Presentation "A structured, prepared and speech-based means of communicating information, ideas, or arguments to a group of interested people in order to inform or persuade them" To inform, inspire, entertain, demonstrate, prove and to persuade, that is an objective of a good presentation 3
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.