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compel

used in a sentence
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Definition to force someone to do something

or more rarely:

to convince someone to do something
  • Does our DNA compel us to act as we do?
compel = force
  • Can we compel the witness to testify?
    • compel = force
  • Cicero listed "Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do" as one of the six mistakes of mankind.
  • Out of the hard and unusual struggle through which he is compelled to pass, he gets a strength, a confidence, that one misses whose pathway is comparatively smooth by reason of birth and race.
    Booker T. Washington
  • I am sorry, Madam, but I am compelled to ask you to show us his room.
    Theodore Dreiser  --  An American Tragedy
    • compelled = forced
  • At this point I was compelled to surrender.
    Booker T. Washington  --  Up From Slavery: An Autobiography
    • compelled = forced
  • So he compelled himself to read the last paragraph slowly—with his head, not his heart, so that he could understand it.
    Alan Paton  --  Cry, the Beloved Country
    • compelled = forced
  • She compelled obedience from him,
    Jack London  --  White Fang
    • compelled = forced
  • Once again, however, he had a close call; and once, suspecting danger, he compelled the dog to go on in front.
    Jack London  --  To Build a Fire
    • compelled = forced
  • As it was, we were compelled to hold our heads high and be, respectively, a gentleman and a lady.
    Harper Lee  --  To Kill a Mockingbird
    • compelled = forced
  • She wanted to run, breathless as she was, up-stairs to Mr. Linton's room; but I compelled her to sit down on a chair, and...
    Emily Bronte  --  Wuthering Heights
    • compelled = forced
  • I was compelled to deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh.
    Frederick Douglass  --  The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
    • compelled = forced
  • The Carthaginians, reduced to extreme necessity, were compelled to come to terms with Agathocles,
    Nicolo Machiavelli  --  The Prince
    • compelled = forced
  • he had been compelled to leave a little protection of stones and dirt to which he had devoted much care and skill.
    Stephen Crane  --  The Red Badge of Courage
    • compelled = forced — perhaps by an inner desire
  • Now that I was compelled to think about it, reading was something that just came to me, as learning to fasten the seat of my union suit without looking around, or achieving two bows from a snarl of shoelaces.
    Harper Lee  --  To Kill a Mockingbird
    • compelled = forced
  • They are constantly compelled to resort to it.
    Harriet Jacobs  --  Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
    • compelled = forced
  • Deep in the forest a call was sounding, and as often as he heard this call, mysteriously thrilling and luring, he felt compelled to turn his back upon the fire ... and to plunge into the forest
    Jack London  --  The Call of the Wild
    • compelled = forced
  • AUTHOR'S NOTE Before publishing such an alarming transcript, I felt compelled to do some fact-checking on Sadie and Carter's story.
    Rick Riordan  --  The Throne of Fire
  • The vampire's bite woke me; now her blood in my veins compels you.
    Cassandra Clare  --  City of Fallen Angels
  • Also, I feel compelled to say that your face is beautiful to me.
    Kate DiCamillo  --  Flora & Ulysses

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