All 5 Uses of
compel
in
Jane Eyre
- "Excuse me," he continued: "necessity compels me to make you useful."†
p. 136.1compels = forces; or (more rarely) convinces
- I should not settle tamely down into being the forbearing party; I should assign you your share of labour, and compel you to accomplish it, or else it should be left undone: I should insist, also, on your keeping some of those drawling, half-insincere complaints hushed in your own breast.†
p. 278.6compel = force; or (more rarely) convince
- I fear you will compel me to go through a private marriage ceremony, besides that performed at the altar.†
p. 311.0
- These words I not only thought, but uttered; and thrusting back all my misery into my heart, I made an effort to compel it to remain there — dumb and still.†
p. 386.1
- but as his wife — at his side always, and always restrained, and always checked — forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly and never utter a cry, though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital — this would be unendurable.
p. 470.4 *compel = force
Definition:
to force someone to do something
or more rarely:
to convince someone to do something
or more rarely:
to convince someone to do something
Most typically, compel describes an external influence forcing someone to do something, but it can also describe being driven by an internal desire.