Compel
verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 To drive together, round up. archaic, literally, transitive
"The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall."
- 2 force somebody to do something wordnet
- 3 To overpower; to subdue. transitive
"She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man."
- 4 necessitate or exact wordnet
- 5 To force, constrain, or coerce. transitive
"Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions."
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 To forcefully or powerfully motivate (a course of action). transitive
"As the novel progresses, it picks up a propulsive energy, the kind that compels you to keep reading straight through to the end."
- 7 To have a strong, irresistible force (on someone or something). transitive
- 8 To exact, extort, (make) produce by force. transitive
"Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance."
- 9 To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate. obsolete
"Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd."
- 10 To gather or unite in a crowd or company. obsolete
"in one troop compell'd"
- 11 To call forth; to summon. obsolete
"She had this knight from far compeld."
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"If you want to be respected by others the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you."
Etymology
From Middle English compellen, borrowed from Middle French compellir, from Latin compellere, itself from com- (“together”) + pellere (“to drive”). Displaced native Old English nīedan.
Related phrases
More for "compel"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.