Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- transitive v. To induce to undertake a course of action or embrace a point of view by means of argument, reasoning, or entreaty: "to make children fit to live in a society by persuading them to learn and accept its codes” ( Alan W. Watts). See Usage Note at convince.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. To successfully convince (someone) to agree to, accept, or do something, usually through reasoning and verbal influence. Compare sway.
- v. To urge, plead; to try to convince (someone to do something).
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- transitive v. To influence or gain over by argument, advice, entreaty, expostulation, etc.; to draw or incline to a determination by presenting sufficient motives.
- transitive v. To try to influence.
- transitive v. To convince by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe.
- transitive v. To inculcate by argument or expostulation; to advise; to recommend.
- intransitive v. To use persuasion; to plead; to prevail by persuasion.
- n. Persuasion.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- n. Persuasion.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. cause somebody to adopt a certain position, belief, or course of action; twist somebody's arm
- v. win approval or support for
Etymologies
Examples
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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.
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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,
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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.
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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.
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But the only power Bandow has is the power to persuade, which is in no way enhanced by such antics.
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He now had a way to achieve that objective, namely, persuade Syria to withdraw its forces from Lebanon.
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-- a kindly means of saving faces for those whom he and I were going to "persuade" -- of making the "climb-down" easier for them!
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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.
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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
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Every day, China uses a combination of export taxes and controls, which clearly violate WTO rules, and mid-'70s OPEC-like practices to price gouge rare earths in the extreme, to destroy all possible foreign competition in rare earths, and, most insidious, to 'persuade' foreign firms to move their related manufacturing to China before non-Chinese rare earth mines are on stream and its market domination diminishes.
Leo Hindery, Jr.: China's Latest Power Plays -- More Unfair Trade, Now Grave Threats to Our Security
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