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Compel

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary · 1828 1 of 2

Part of speech: verb (v.)

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.

Synonyms: force; constrain; oblige; necessitate; coerce. See Coerce.

Webster's 1828 Dictionary · 1828 2 of 2

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To make one yield or submit. "If she can not entreat, I can not compel." Shak.

Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Structured JSON vendored from sktzofrenic/webster1828 at commit 5a58d9e0191eefaa51affbc1bb1b8bc5782ba6c0. The upstream README identifies the dictionary text as public domain and the project license as MIT.

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