Search the Dictionary

One who, or that which, drives; the person or thing that urges or compels anything else to move onward.

arth, who, for love of Narcissus, pined away until nothing was left of her but her voice. Compelled me to awake the courteous Echo To give me answer from her mossy couch. Milton. Echo organ (Mus.), a set organ pipes inclosed in a box so as to produce a soft, distant effect; -- generally superseded by the swell. -- Ech…

To force; to constrain; to compel to yield. [Obs.] Spenser.

To put force upon; to force; to constrain; to compel; as, to enforce obedience to commands. Inward joy enforced my heart to smile. Shak.

Compelled; forced; not voluntary. "Enforced wrong." "Enforced smiles." Shak. -- En*for"ced*ly, adv. Shak.

horitatively or peremptorily, as a right; to enforce the payment of, or a yielding of; to compel to yield or to furnish; hence, to wrest, as a fee or reward when none is due; -- followed by from or of before the one subjected to exaction; as, to exact tribute, fees, obedience, etc., from or of some one. He said into th…

The act of demanding with authority, and compelling to pay or yield; compulsion to give or furnish; a levying by force; a driving to compliance; as, the exaction to tribute or of obedience; hence, extortion. Take away your exactions from my people. Ezek. xlv. 9. Daily new exactions are devised. Shak. Illegal exactions…

ed by a compact between parties, usually governments or their representatives. The Romans compelled them, contrary to all federal right, . . . to part with Sardinia. Grew.

quills, coverts, and bastard wing. See Bird. -- To put to flight, To turn to flight, to compel to run away; to force to flee; to rout.

To constrain to do or to forbear, by the exertion of a power not resistible; to compel by physical, moral, or intellectual means; to coerce; as, masters force slaves to labor.

one shaft, when thrust forcibly into the corresponding hollow cone b on the other shaft, compels the shafts to rotate together, by the hold the friction of the conical surfaces gives. (b) A toothed clutch, one member of which, instead of being made fast on its shaft, is held by friction and can turn, by slipping, unde…

A compellative of respect, consideration, or conciliation; as, gentle reader. "Gentle sirs." "Gentle Jew." "Gentle servant." Shak.

The state, personality, or character, of a giant; -- a compellation for a giant. His giantship is gone somewhat crestfallen. Milton.

se; to kill. -- To live from hand to mouth, to obtain food and other necessaries as want compels, without previous provision. -- To make one's hand, to gain advantage or profit. -- To put the hand unto, to steal. Ex. xxii. 8.-- To put the last, or finishing, hand to, to make the last corrections in; to complete; to…

To be under necessity or obligation; to be compelled; followed by an infinitive. Science has, and will long have, to be a divider and a separatist. M. Arnold. The laws of philology have to be established by external comparison and induction. Earle.

Imperative; urgent; compelling. Imperious need, which can not be withstood. Dryden.

Not compelled; unconstrained. [Obs.] Coles.

Not to be coerced; incapable of being compelled or forced.

on, of whom the same debt, duty, or thing is claimed adversely by two or more parties, to compel them to litigate the right or title between themselves, and thereby to relieve himself from the suits which they might otherwise bring against him.

frequent use by Bacon, and, though now obsolete, should be revived, as without it we are compelled to borrow "cognitions" to express its import. Sir W. Hamilton. To use a word of Bacon's, now unfortunately obsolete, we must determine the relative value of knowledges. H. Spencer.