The AI-powered English dictionary
countable and uncountable, plural compulsions
An irrational need or irresistible urge to perform some action, often despite negative consequences. quotations examples
It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: perhaps out of a desire to escape the gravity of this world or to get a preview of the next; […].
2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36
The use of authority, influence, or other power to force (compel) a person or persons to act. quotations examples
From the opening of the City & South London Railway independent electric locomotives were used under compulsion of the Board of Trade.
1941 May, “Jubilee of the City Tube”, in Railway Magazine, page 223
But Treaty translator and Ottawa leader Andrew Blackbird described the Treaty as made “not with the free will of the Indians, but by compulsion.”
2016 January 17, “Wealthy cabals run America”, in Al Jazeera America, retrieved 18 January 2016
The lawful use of violence (i.e. by the administration). examples