compel

From Middle English compellen, borrowed from Middle French compellir, from Latin compellere, itself from com- (“together”) + pellere (“to drive”). Displaced native Old English nīedan.

• IPA^(key): /kəmˈpɛl/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɛl
• Hyphenation: com‧pel

compel (third-person singular simple present compels, present participle compelling, simple past and past participle compelled)

1. (transitive, archaic, literally) To drive together, round up.

   The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall.

2. (transitive) To overpower; to subdue.
   • 1917, Upton Sinclair, chapter 16, in King Coal:

     She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.

3. (transitive) To force, constrain or coerce.

   Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions.

   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.

   • 1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. , volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, , →OCLC:

     Wolsey […] compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.

   • 2020, N. K. Jemisin, The City We Became, Orbit, page 173:

     And then she giggles, inordinately pleased by her own cleverness.

   • December 15 2022, Samanth Subramanian, “Dismantling Sellafield: the epic task of shutting down a nuclear site”, in The Guardian‎:

     Sellafield compels this kind of gaze into the abyss of deep time because it is a place where multiple time spans – some fleeting, some cosmic – drift in and out of view.

4. (transitive) To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
   • 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance.

   • 1912, L. Frank Baum, chapter 14, in Sky Island:

     The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.

5. (obsolete) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
   • 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., , →OCLC, page 79:

     And I will fetch you forage from all fields, / For I compel all creatures to my will.

6. (obsolete) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
   • 1700, Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; , London: Jacob Tonson, , →OCLC:

     in one troop compell'd

7. (obsolete) To call forth; to summon.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5:

     She had this knight from far compeld.

   • , Homer, “Book V”, in Geo Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. , London: Nathaniell Butter, →OCLC; republished as The Iliads of Homer, Prince of Poets, , new edition, volume I, London: Charles Knight and Co., , 1843, →OCLC:

     the pow'rs that I compel / Shall throw thee hence, and make thy head run ope the gates of hel

     The spelling has been modernized.

• compulsion

• “compel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “compel”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• Random House Webster’s Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.