Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Compel

Com·pel′ (kŏm·pĕl′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Compelled; p. pr. & vb. n Compelling.] [L. compellere, compulsum, to drive together, to compel, urge; com- + pellere to drive: cf. OF. compellir. See Pulse.] 1. To drive or urge with force, or irresistibly; to force; to constrain; to oblige; to necessitate, either by physical or moral force.

Wolsey . . . compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once. Hallam.

And they compel one Simon . . . to bear his cross. Mark xv. 21.

2. To take by force or violence; to seize; to exact; to extort. [R.]

Commissions, which compel from each The sixth part of his substance. Shak.

3. To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.

Easy sleep their weary limbs compelled. Dryden.

I compel all creatures to my will. Tennyson.

4. To gather or unite in a crowd or company. [A Latinism] "In one troop compelled." Dryden.

5. To call forth; to summon. [Obs.] Chapman.

She had this knight from far compelled. Spenser.

Syn. — To force; constrain; oblige; necessitate; coerce. See Coerce.

Com·pel′ (kŏm·pĕl′), v. i. To make one yield or submit. "If she can not entreat, I can compel." Shak.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.