compel
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /kəmˈpɛl/
rhymes: -ɛl
Forms: form: compels
form: compelling
form: compelled
form: compelled
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.
Senses: examples: text: The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall.
glosses: To drive together, round up.
examples: text: She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.
ref: 1917, Upton Sinclair, chapter 16, in King Coal:
glosses: To overpower; to subdue.
examples: text: Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions.
text: Congratulations, your courage compels respect.
text: Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.
ref: 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]:
text: Wolsey […] compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
ref: 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:
text: 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.
ref: December 15, 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian:
glosses: To force, constrain, or coerce.
examples: text: As the novel progresses, it picks up a propulsive energy, the kind that compels you to keep reading straight through to the end.
ref: November 1, 2022, J. Courtney Sullivan, “In Northern Ireland During the Troubles, a Secret Romance”, in The New York Times:
glosses: To forcefully or powerfully motivate (a course of action).
glosses: To have a strong, irresistible force (on someone or something).
examples: text: Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance.
ref: 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]:
text: The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.
ref: 1912, L. Frank Baum, chapter 14, in Sky Island:
glosses: To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
examples: text: Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.
ref: 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:
text: And I will fetch you forage from all fields, / For I compel all creatures to my will.
ref: 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 79:
glosses: To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
examples: text: in one troop compell'd
ref: 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
examples: text: She had this knight from far compeld.
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5:
text: the pow'rs that I compel / Shall throw thee hence, and make thy head run ope the gates of hel
ref: [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:
glosses: To call forth; to summon.
Derived terms: compellable
compellation
compelled
compellence
compeller
compelling
compel testimony
recompel
Related terms: compulsion