Com*pel" (?), v. i. To make one yield or submit. "If she can not entreat, I can compel."
Shak.
Com*pel" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Compelled (?);
p. pr. & vb. n
Compelling.]
[L. compellere,
compulsum, to drive together, to compel, urge; com- + pellere to drive: cf. OF. compellir. See Pulse.]
1. To drive
or urge with force, or irresistibly; to force; to constrain; to oblige; to necessitate, either by physical or moral force.
Wolsey . . .
compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
Hallam.
And they compel one Simon . . . to bear his cross.
Mark xv.
21.
2. To
take by force or violence; to seize; to exact; to extort. [R.]
Commissions, which compel from each
The sixth part of
his substance.
Shak.
3. To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
Easy sleep their weary limbs
compelled.
Dryden.
I compel all creatures to my will.
Tennyson.
4. To gather or
unite in a crowd or company. [A Latinism] "In one troop compelled."
Dryden.
5. To call forth; to summon. [Obs.] Chapman.
She had this
knight from far compelled.
Spenser.
Syn. -- To force; constrain; oblige; necessitate; coerce. See Coerce.
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