Meanings
- not comparableobsoleteCompulsatory; employing force or constraint.
But to recouer of vs by ſtrong hand / And termes Compulſatiue, thoſe foreſaid Lands
c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 1532 more examples
The infernall powers appeaſed with ſacrifice, prayers, and tedious murmurings (words ſoftly muttered barbarous and vnſignificant, leaſt they ſhould diſturbe the Imagination: although held by the deluded of a compulſative power) Medea cauſeth Æſon to be brought forth: […]
1632, G[eorge] S[andys], “Vpon the Seaventh Booke […] ”, in Ovid, translated by G[eorge] S[andys], Ovid’s Metamorphosis Englished, Mythologiz’d, And Repreſented in Figures, Oxford: Iohn Lichfield, page 256There seems to be something brotherly in compulsative religion; it forces a man to go to heaven nolens volens.
1799, J[ohann] G[eorg von] Zimmermann, Reflections on Men and Things; Translated from a French Manuscript […], London: Printed by T. Daviſon […] for H. D. Symonds […], page 107
Origin
- Latincompellere“to compel”
- Englishcompulsative
From Late Latin compulsāt-, participial stem of compulsāre, intensitive form of Latin compellere (“to compel”).
More words from Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
compulsative. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/compulsative
“compulsative.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/compulsative. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “compulsative,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/compulsative.
Source: compulsative on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.