/COMPEL-meaning

// Verb.

// Pronunciation and accent: kəmpɛl.

// Etymology: from Old French compeller “to compel”, from Latin compellere “to drive together, to compel, urge”, from com- “together” + pellere “to drive”.

// Preterite tense: compelled.

// Preterite participle: compelled.

// Present participle: compelling.

// It is dated from 1300.

// Transitive: 1. (The subject: a person or a thing) to make (a person) do something by compulsion; to urge compulsively or irresistibly (a person) to do a thing.

// Synonyms for “compel”: constrain, necessitate, urge, force, oblige, coerce.

// Antonyms: dissuade, stop, repress, restrain, discourage.

// Translation: contraindre, in French; compeler, in Spanish; costringere, in Italian.

// With the preposition “to” + an infinitive:

"A moment, friends," said Gerard, "with your leave;" and he accompanied his daughter into the house.  He would have stopped in the hall, but she walked on to their room, and Gerard… was compelled to follow her.

B. Disraeli… Sybil… 1845

My head became giddy, and I was compelled to lie down.

J. Frost… The Panorama… 1846

// With the preposition “to” or “into” + noun:

We could never perceive that she suspected us of being her persecutors; and her simplicity, whether real or affected, compelled us to a caution and respect…

M. Brunton… Discipline… 1814

Let us contemplate facts; let us, in the great study of ourselves, resolutely compel the mind to a rigid consideration of itself.

P. Shelley… A Defence of Poetry… 1821

… force it to be still—compel it into peace!

E. Pickering… The Squire… 1837

The citizens, after a little, began to perceive that lord Thomas was not sincerely supported by his men, who had been most of them compelled into the service.

J. Wills… Distinguished Irishmen… 1841

Despite the ascent, Merlin never slackened his pace, but, though his master would have restrained him, held on as before. But the brow of the hill attained, Richard compelled him to a brief halt.

Ainsworth… The Lancashire Witches… 1848

The younger ladies of the house of Gaunt were also compelled into submission.

Thackeray… Vanity Fair… 1848

… she felt the charming sensation… of being compelled into an opinion by a man she loved.

Hardy… Desperate Remedies… 1871

// 2. Obsolete meaning: (the subject: an animated being) to get or take by force or violence.

// 3. (The subject: someone or something) to cause (an action, event, or process) to begin or happen by force; to forcefully motivate (a course of action).

// Synonyms: enforce, constrain, necessitate.

There was a harmony between his thought and its expression, that won attention and compelled admiration.

C. March… Webster… 1868

// 4. Latinism: to drive together; to drive forcibly.

In the meanwhile, the more distinguished persons of each train followed their patrons into the lofty halls and ante-chambers of the royal Palace, flowing on in the same current, like two streams which are compelled into the same channel, yet shun to mix their waters.

Scott… Kenilworth… 1821

// Intransitive: to exert compulsion.

// English words derived from the verb COMPEL: compellability, compellable, compellably, compellation, compellative, compelled, compellent, compeller, compelling, compellingly, uncompellable.

// Words derived from Latin pellere, see COMPULSION.

 

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