All 15 Uses of

coax
in
Main Street, by Sinclair Lewis

An early-wrinkled, young-old mother, moving as though her joints were dry, opens a suit-case in which are seen creased blouses, a pair of slippers worn through at the toes, a bottle of patent medicine, a tin cup, a paper-covered book about dreams which the news-butcher has coaxed her into buying.†
Chpt 3

coaxed = tried to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort -- often gently persuaded

Even the millionaire Dawsons and Ezra Stowbody and "Professor" George Edwin Mott danced, looking only slightly foolish; and by rushing about the room and being coy and coaxing to all persons over forty-five, Carol got them into a waltz and a Virginia Reel.†
Chpt 6

coaxing = trying to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort -- often gently persuading

She wondered whether they could for five minutes be coaxed to talk about something besides the winter top of Knute Stamquist's Ford, and what Al Tingley had said about his mother-in-law.†
Chpt 6

coaxed = tried to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort -- often gently persuaded

I mustn't let it make me self-conscious," she coaxed herself—overstimulated by the drug of thought, and offensively on the defensive.†
Chpt 7

Carol, smart in maid's uniform, coaxed the temporary stage-hands to finish setting the first act, wailed at Kennicott, the electrician, "Now for heaven's sake remember the change in cue for the ambers in Act Two," slipped out to ask Dave Dyer, the ticket-taker, if he could get some more chairs, warned the frightened Myrtle Cass to be sure to upset the waste-basket when John Grimm called, "Here you, Reddy."†
Chpt 18

coaxed = tried to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort -- often gently persuaded

She asserted that it is a matter of universal similarity; of flimsiness of construction, so that the towns resemble frontier camps; of neglect of natural advantages, so that the hills are covered with brush, the lakes shut off by railroads, and the creeks lined with dumping-grounds; of depressing sobriety of color; rectangularity of buildings; and excessive breadth and straightness of the gashed streets, so that there is no escape from gales and from sight of the grim sweep of land, nor any windings to coax the loiterer along, while the breadth which would be majestic in an avenue of palaces makes the low shabby shops creeping down the typical Main Street the more mean by comparison.†
Chpt 22

His arm coaxed my shoulder and his eyes dared me not to admire him.†
Chpt 23

coaxed = tried to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort -- often gently persuaded

And if he ever were such a sad dog as to look at another woman, I certainly hope he'd have spirit enough to do the tempting, and not be coaxed into it, as in your depressing picture!†
Chpt 25

Anyway——Poor lamb, coaxing me to stay and play with him!†
Chpt 28

coaxing = trying to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort -- often gently persuading

"Don't you like the old man any more?" he coaxed.†
Chpt 30

coaxed = tried to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort -- often gently persuaded

Her only struggle was in coaxing Kennicott not to spend all his time with the tourists from the ten thousand other Gopher Prairies.†
Chpt 34 *

coaxing = trying to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort -- often gently persuading

Definitions:

(1) (coax as in: coax her to join us)
try to obtain a result through gentle and careful effort -- often gentle persuasion
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
meaning too rare to warrant focus:

Less commonly, coax is a short for coaxial cable (a type of electrical cable used to transmit data, the internet, video and voice communications). Coaxial cables have a conducting wire surrounded by an insulating layer surrounded by a shield. The insulating layer and shield surround a common axis--the conducting wire.

In classic literature, you may see coax used as a synonym for caress or fondle.