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impel. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
impel, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
impel in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
impel you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology
From Middle English impellen, borrowed from Latin impellō.
Pronunciation
Verb
impel (third-person singular simple present impels, present participle impelling, simple past and past participle impelled)
- (transitive) To urge a person; to press on; to incite to action or motion via intrinsic motivation.
- Antonym: (to compel or drive extrinsically) propel
1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […] ; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.
1976 August 28, Michael Shernoff, “No 'Rotting Closet'”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 9, page 5:I feel impelled to reply to Roger Henry's letter about my article on being denied an apartment. I truly resent any insinuation that I "slunk back into that rotting old closet."
2016, Noam Chomsky, What Kind of Creatures Are We?, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 61:Concern for the common good should impel us to find ways to overcome the devilish impact of these disastrous policies […]
- (transitive) To drive forward; to propel an object, to provide an impetus for motion or action.
- Synonym: propel
Antonyms
Related terms
Translations
To urge a person; to press on; to incite to action or motion via intrinsic motivation
To drive forward; to propel an object
References
- “impel”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- “impel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.