verb (-ll-) (formal)
1 to force sb to do sth; to make sth necessary:
[VNtoinf] The law can compel fathers to make regular payments for their children. * I feel compelled to write and tell you how much I enjoyed your book. * [VN] Last year ill health compelled his retirement.
2 [VN] (not used in the progressive tenses) to cause a particular reaction:
He spoke with an authority that compelled the attention of the whole crowd.
seealsoCOMPULSION
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for compel is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Does compel appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — compel appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
