compel

present singular third person compels · participle present compelling · participle past compelled · past compelled

1. archaicliterallytransitiveTo drive together, round up.

   The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall.

2. transitiveTo overpower; to subdue.

   She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.

   1917, Upton Sinclair, chapter 16, in King Coal

3. transitiveTo force, constrain, or coerce.

   Congratulations, your courage compels respect.

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   Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions.

   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, →OCLC, [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. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […], →OCLC

   To me it seems that extensive investment in relatively low-powered units may have the same ultimate result of motive power shortage as that which afflicts the London Midland Region today, and which has compelled the re-engining of some of the earlier multiple-unit diesel train sets.

   1958 June 28, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, in Railway Magazine, page 412

   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. transitiveTo forcefully or powerfully motivate (a course of action).

   As the novel progresses, it picks up a propulsive energy, the kind that compels you to keep reading straight through to the end.

   November 1, 2022, J. Courtney Sullivan, “In Northern Ireland During the Troubles, a Secret Romance”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: necessitate

5. transitiveTo have a strong, irresistible force (on someone or something).
6. transitiveTo exact, extort, (make) produce by force.

   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, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]

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   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

7. obsoleteTo force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.

   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, […], →OCLC

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   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., […], →OCLC, page 79

8. obsoleteTo gather or unite in a crowd or company.

   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, […], →OCLC

9. obsoleteTo call forth; to summon.

   She had this knight from far compeld.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5

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   the pow'rs that I compel / Shall throw thee hence, and make thy head run ope the gates of hel

   [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