impel

present singular third person impels · participle present impelling · participle past impelled · past impelled

1. transitiveTo urge a person; to press on; to incite to action or motion via intrinsic motivation.

   Concern for the common good should impel us to find ways to overcome the devilish impact of these disastrous policies […]

   2016, Noam Chomsky, What Kind of Creatures Are We?, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 61

   2 more examples

   She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   I feel impelled to reply to Roger Henry's letter about my article on being denied an apartment. I truly resent any insinuation that I "slunk back into that rotting old closet."

   1976 August 28, Michael Shernoff, “No 'Rotting Closet'”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 9, page 5

   Synonyms: actuate, motivate, abet, actuate, goose, fuel, light a fire under, send · Antonyms: propel

2. transitiveTo drive forward; to propel an object, to provide an impetus for motion or action.

   The wind impelled the kayaks toward the shore.

   Synonyms: drive, press, propel, push, shove, thrutch · Antonyms: restrain, retard, behedge, blunt, crimp, foreclose, delay, difficult