All 5 Uses of
compel
in
Crime and Punishment, by Dostoyevsky
- I have the honour to inform you, in anticipation, that if, in spite of my request, I meet Rodion Romanovitch, I shall be compelled to withdraw immediately and then you have only yourself to blame.†
Chpt 3.2compelled = forced; or (more rarely) convinced
- "I am compelled to keep a business engagement, and so I shall not be in your way," he added with an air of some pique and he began getting up.†
Chpt 4.2 *
- Perhaps the chief element was that peculiar "poor man's pride," which compels many poor people to spend their last savings on some traditional social ceremony, simply in order to do "like other people," and not to "be looked down upon."†
Chpt 5.2compels = forces; or (more rarely) convinces
- In the opposite case I shall be compelled to have recourse to very serious measures and then...you must blame yourself.†
Chpt 5.3compelled = forced; or (more rarely) convinced
- You will admit that recollecting your embarrassment, your eagerness to get away and the fact that you kept your hands for some time on the table, and taking into consideration your social position and the habits associated with it, I was, so to say, with horror and positively against my will, compelled to entertain a suspicion—a cruel, but justifiable suspicion!†
Chpt 5.3
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.