urge
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: ûrj
ipa: /ɜːd͡ʒ/
enpr: ûrj
ipa: /ɝd͡ʒ/
rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)dʒ
Forms: form: urges
form: urging
form: urged
form: urged
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: urge
form: urge
form: urged
form: urge
form: urgest
form: urged
form: urgedst
form: urges
form: urgeth
form: urged
form: urge
form: urged
form: urge
form: urged
form: urge
form: -
form: urging
form: urged
Etymology: From Latin urgeō (“urge”).
Senses: examples: text: Lo hapless Tydeus, whose ill-fated hand / Had slain his brother, leaves his native land, / And seized with horror in the shades of night, / Through the thick deserts headlong urged his flight[…]
ref: 1703, Statius, translated by Alexander Pope, edited by William Charles Macready, Thebais, London: Bradbury & Evans, translation of original in Classical Latin, published 1849, page 129:
text: No longer do we tack and tack obediently to the demand of the Valkyries. A new power urges our ships independently of wind and tide. With the growth of steam power the crowning glory of the old ship departed.
ref: 1922, Holbrook Jackson, “Ships and the Sea”, in Occasions, page 128:
synonyms: animate
encourage
impel
stimulate
glosses: To press; to push; to drive; to impel; to force onward.
examples: text: My boss urged me to reconsider my decision to leave the company, even offering a pay rise.
text: You do miſtake your buſines, my Brother neuer / Did vrge me in his Act : I did inquire it, / And haue my Learning from ſome true reports / That drew their ſwords with you, did he not rather / Diſcredit my authority with yours, / And make the warres alike againſt my ſtomacke, / Hauing alike your cauſe.
ref: c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 345, column 2, lines 51–57:
synonyms: word: instigate
word: abet
word: actuate
word: goose
word: send
word: sting
word: bring about
word: cheer
word: drive
word: encourage
word: egg on
word: engender
word: evoke
word: excite
word: foment
word: goad
word: grill
word: ignite
word: impel
word: incite
word: induce
word: inflame
word: instigate
word: invoke
word: lash
word: motive
word: motivate
word: move
word: obligate
word: oblige
word: push
word: promote
word: prompt
word: provoke
word: rouse
word: set off
word: spark off
word: spur
word: spur on
word: stimulate
word: stir
word: stir up
word: stoke
word: tempt
word: urge
word: whet
word: whip up
glosses: To put mental pressure on; to ply with motives, arguments, persuasion, or importunity.
examples: text: Vrge not my fathers anger (Eglamoure) / But thinke vpon my griefe (a Ladies griefe) / And on the iuſtice of my flying hence, / To keepe me from a moſt vnholy match, / Which heauen and fortune ſtill rewards with plagues.
ref: 1589–1593, William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, act IV, scene iii, page 24:
text: “I can answer a civil question civilly,” said the youth ; “and will pay fitting respect to your age, if you do not urge my patience with mockery. Since I have been here in France and Flanders, men have called me, in their fantasy, the Varlet with the Velvet Pouch, because of this hawk-purse which I carry by my side ; but my true name, when at home, is Quentin Durward.”
ref: 1823, Sir Walter Scott, chapter II, in Quentin Durward, volume I, Edinburgh: Archibald Constable and Co., page 35:
synonyms: agitate
strain
test
vex
glosses: To provoke; to exasperate.
examples: text: Man ? and for ever ? wretch ! what wouldst thou have ? / Heir urges heir, like wave impelling wave.
ref: a. 1744, Horace, “The Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, volume III, London: William Pickering, translation of A Renunciation of Lyric Poetry (in Classical Latin), published 1851:
glosses: To press hard upon; to follow closely.
examples: text: to urge an argument; to urge the necessity of a case
text: To be urging her opinion against Sir Thomas's, was a proof of the extremity of the case, but such was her horror at the first suggestion, that she could actually look him in the face and say she hoped it might be settled otherwise; in vain however; […]
ref: 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter X, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 222:
text: As I understand it, that was a valid objection urged by Momus against the house which Minerva made, that she "had not made it movable, by which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided"; and it may still be urged, for our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them; and the bad neighborhood to be avoided is our own scurvy selves.
ref: 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:
glosses: To present in an urgent manner; to insist upon.
examples: text: to urge an ore with intense heat
glosses: To treat with forcible means; to take severe or violent measures with.
glosses: To press onward or forward.
glosses: To be pressing in argument; to insist; to persist.
Derived terms: urge on
Related terms: urgent
surge