compel

Verb

1. To drive together, round up.
   • The shepherds compelled the stray sheep into the fold as night began to fall.
2. To overpower; to subdue.
   • She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man. - 1917, Upton Sinclair, chapter 16, in King Coal:
3. To force, constrain, or coerce.
   • Logic compels the wise, while fools feel compelled by emotions.
   • Congratulations, your courage compels respect.
   • Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties. - 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies,...
4. To forcefully or powerfully motivate (a course of action).
   • As the novel progresses, it picks up a propulsive energy, the kind that compels you to keep reading straight through to the end. - November 1, 2022, J. Courtney Sullivan, “In Northern Ireland During the Troubles, a...
5. To have a strong, irresistible force (on someone or something).
6. To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
   • Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance. - 1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares...
   • The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order. - 1912, L. Frank Baum, chapter 14, in Sky Island:
7. To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
   • Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd. - 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson,...
   • And I will fetch you forage from all fields, / For I compel all creatures to my will. - 1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, page 79:
8. To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
   • in one troop compell'd - 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
9. To call forth; to summon.
   • She had this knight from far compeld. - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 5:
   • the pow'rs that I compel / Shall throw thee hence, and make thy head run ope the gates of hel - [1611?], Homer, “Book V”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets. […], London: […] Nathaniell...