Definition of "compel"

compel

/kəmˈpɛl/

verb
third-person singular simple present compels, present participle compelling, simple past and past participle compelled
1. (transitive, archaic, literally) To drive together, round up
2. (transitive) To overpower; to subdue.
  Quotations
  She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.
  1917, Upton Sinclair, chapter 16, in King Coal
3. (transitive) To force, constrain or coerce.
  Quotations
  Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.
  1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]
  Wolsey […] compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
  1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […]
  And then she giggles, inordinately pleased by her own cleverness.
  2020, N. K. Jemisin, The City We Became, Orbit, page 173
  Sellafield compels this kind of gaze into the abyss of deep time because it is a place where multiple time spans – some fleeting, some cosmic – drift in and out of view.
  December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian‎
4. (transitive) To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
  Quotations
  Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance.
  1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii]
  The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.
  1912, L. Frank Baum, chapter 14, in Sky Island
5. (obsolete) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
  Quotations
  Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.
  1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
  And I will fetch you forage from all fields, / For I compel all creatures to my will.
  1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], page 79
6. (obsolete) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
  Quotations
  in one troop compell'd
  1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […]
7. (obsolete) To call forth; to summon.
  Quotations
  She had this knight from far compeld.
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, stanza 5
  the pow'rs that I compel / Shall throw thee hence, and make thy head run ope the gates of helThe spelling has been modernized.
  , Homer, “Book V”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter; The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843,

Definition of "compel"

compel

verb

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