Pronunciations (2)
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/kəmˈpɛl/
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kəmˈpɛl
Verb
To drive together, round up.
Usage- Archaic
- literally
- Transitive
- Examples
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The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall.
To overpower; to subdue.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.
To force, constrain, or coerce.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions.
Congratulations, your courage compels respect.
More examples (4)
Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.
Wolsey […] compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
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.
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.
To forcefully or powerfully motivate (a course of action).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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As the novel progresses, it picks up a propulsive energy, the kind that compels you to keep reading straight through to the end.
To have a strong, irresistible force (on someone or something).
Usage- Transitive
To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance.
The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.
To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.
And I will fetch you forage from all fields, / For I compel all creatures to my will.
To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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in one troop compell'd
To call forth; to summon.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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She had this knight from far compeld.
the pow'rs that I compel / Shall throw thee hence, and make thy head run ope the gates of hel
Verb
force somebody to do something
- Examples
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We compel all students to fill out this form
necessitate or exact
- Examples
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the water shortage compels conservation