compel
verbattested in dialogue
- //kəmˈpɛl//
To overpower; to subdue.
verb
- 1
archaicTo drive together, round up.
The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall.
- 2
To overpower; to subdue.
She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.
- 3
To force, constrain, or coerce.
Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions.
Congratulations, your courage compels respect.
Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.
Wolsey […] compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
- 4
To forcefully or powerfully motivate (a course of action).
As the novel progresses, it picks up a propulsive energy, the kind that compels you to keep reading straight through to the end.
- 5
To have a strong, irresistible force (on someone or something).
- 6
To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance.
The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.
- 7
obsoleteTo force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.
And I will fetch you forage from all fields, / For I compel all creatures to my will.
- 8
obsoleteTo gather or unite in a crowd or company.
in one troop compell'd
- 9
obsoleteTo call forth; to summon.
She had this knight from far compeld.
the pow'rs that I compel / Shall throw thee hence, and make thy head run ope the gates of hel
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- Proto-Indo-European *pel- Proto-Indo-European *pelh₂-der. Proto-Indo-European *-né-der. Proto-Italic *pelnōder. Latin pellō Latin compellerebor. Middle French compellirbor. Middle English compellen English compel From Middle English compellen, borrowed from Middle French compellir, from Latin compellere, itself from com- (“together”) + pellere (“to drive”). Displaced native Old English nīedan.
Forms
- past tense
- compelled
- past participle
- compelled
- present participle
- compelling
- third person singular
- compels