# compel
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English compellen, borrowed from Middle French compellir, from Latin compellere, itself from com- (“together”) + pellere (“to drive”). Displaced native Old English nīedan.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /kəmˈpɛl/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɛl
* Hyphenation: com‧pel

### Verb

compel (third-person singular simple present compels, present participle compelling, simple past and past participle compelled)
* (transitive, archaic, literally) To drive together, round up.
    The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall.
* (transitive) To overpower; to subdue.
** 1917, Upton Sinclair, chapter 16, in King Coal:She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.
* (transitive) To force, constrain or coerce.
    Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions.
** 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, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.
** 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC:Wolsey […] compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
** 2020, N. K. Jemisin, The City We Became, Orbit, page 173:And then she giggles, inordinately pleased by her own cleverness.
** December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian‎: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.
* (transitive) To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
** 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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance.
** 1912, L. Frank Baum, chapter 14, in Sky Island:The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.
* (obsolete) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
** 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.
** 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 79:And I will fetch you forage from all fields, / For I compel all creatures to my will.
* (obsolete) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
** 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:in one troop compell'd
* (obsolete) To call forth; to summon.
** 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5:She had this knight from far compeld.
** [1611?], Homer, “Book V”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, […], new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., […], 1843, →OCLC:the pow'rs that I compel / Shall throw thee hence, and make thy head run ope the gates of helThe spelling has been modernized.

#### Derived terms

* compellable
* compellation
* compelled
* compellence
* compeller
* compelling
* compel testimony
* recompel

#### Related terms

* compulsion

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### References

* “compel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “compel”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
* Random House Webster’s Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.