Impel
verb ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 To urge a person; to press on; to incite to action or motion via intrinsic motivation. transitive
"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."
- 2 cause to move forward with force wordnet
- 3 To drive forward; to propel an object, to provide an impetus for motion or action. transitive
"The wind impelled the kayaks toward the shore."
- 4 urge or force (a person) to an action; constrain or motivate wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
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."
Etymology
From Middle English impellen, borrowed from Latin impellō.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.