compel

verb

kuhm-PEL/kəmˈpɛl/

Formscompels, compelling, compelled

9 meanings of compel

Practice

1
force to actverbtransitive
To force, constrain, or coerce someone into doing something against their own will.
The court can compel witnesses to testify under oath.
Economic pressure compelled the company to lay off workers.
Similarforce, oblige, require, coerce, constrain
Note
The core sense takes two shapes. Usually a person is pushed into an act: Henry Hallam writes that Wolsey "compelled the people to pay up," and in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar the passive "am I compell'd to set" carries the speaker's reluctance. The object can also be the result itself, as when courage compels respect. That use shades toward the "exact by force" meaning.
2
motivateverbtransitive
To powerfully motivate a particular course of action, driving someone strongly toward it.
The documentary compelled viewers to rethink their daily habits.
A deep curiosity can compel scientists to pursue years of patient research.
Similardrive, prompt, inspire, spur, impel
Oppositediscourage, deter
3
strong pullverbtransitive
To exert a powerful, irresistible force on a person or thing, drawing them in.
Powerful images can compel an audience for hours.
The melody compelled her to stop and listen.
Similarcaptivate, grip, enthrall, hold, rivet
4
extractverbtransitive
To exact or extort something from someone, forcing them to produce it.
The regime compelled heavy taxes from the conquered towns.
Interrogators sought to compel answers through threats.
Similarexact, extort, extract, wring, wrest
Note
Here the object is the thing extracted, and the victim moves into a from phrase. Shakespeare and Fletcher, writing in 1613, describe commissions that "compel from each / The sixth part of his substance." In L. Frank Baum's Sky Island (1912), a queen has the power "to compel order," where nothing is taken from anyone but obedience is produced. Compare the commoner pattern of compelling a person to act.

Less common meanings

5
verbtransitive
To overpower someone or something and bring them under firm control.
Superior numbers compelled the defenders within days.
The general moved quickly to compel the scattered forces.
Similarsubdue, overpower, overcome, subjugate, conquer
Note
Overpowering can work by attraction rather than by force. Upton Sinclair's King Coal (1917) speaks of faces that "irresistibly compel the soul of a man." Nothing is conquered, yet the will gives way. That brings it close to the sense of irresistible pull, while the obsolete "subjugate" meaning keeps the battlefield sense of making an enemy yield.
6
herd animalsverbarchaictransitive
To drive animals or people together; to round them up into a single group.
The drovers compelled the herd along the narrow valley.
Each morning the boys compel the goats up the hillside.
Note
The literal sense, closest to the Latin: compellere joined com- "together" and pellere "to drive," and here the word still does exactly that to flocks, herds and crowds. It is archaic now. In present-day writing, round up does this work, and compel with a bare animal object will sound deliberately old-fashioned. The borrowing also pushed out the native Old English nīedan.
7
overpowerverbobsolete
To force someone to yield; to overpower and subjugate them completely.
Easy sleep their weary limbs compell'd.
1697, Virgil, The Works of Virgil
And I will fetch you forage from all fields, / For I compel all creatures to my will.
1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Enid”
Note
An obsolete use in which to compel someone was to master them outright, with no particular act required of them. John Dryden's Virgil (1697) has sleep that "their weary limbs compell'd," and Tennyson still writes "I compel all creatures to my will" in 1859. In modern English, compel almost always goes on to name the act, so a bare object sounds poetic or archaic.
8
call forthverbobsolete
To call forth or summon a person, spirit, or thing into one's presence.
She had this knight from far compeld.
1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene
the pow'rs that I compel / Shall throw thee hence, and make thy head run ope the gates of hel
[1611?], Homer, The Iliads of Homer Prince of Poets
Note
Summoning by authority, the meaning of knights fetched and powers conjured. Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene (1590) has a lady who "had this knight from far compeld," and George Chapman's Iliad, from around 1611, speaks of "the pow'rs that I compel." Here the person is brought toward the speaker rather than pushed into an act, which separates it from the coercive modern meaning.
9
gather peopleverbobsolete
To gather or unite people together into a crowd or company.
in one troop compell'd
1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”
Note
This meaning stays nearer than any other to the Latin "drive together" behind the herding sense, but it applies to people assembled rather than animals driven. Dryden's Palamon and Arcite (1700) has a company "in one troop compell'd," which means a crowd formed, not a person coerced. It is obsolete; modern English would say gathered.

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Origin

From Middle English compellen, borrowed via Middle French compellir from Latin compellere, formed from com- ("together") and pellere ("to drive"). It displaced the native Old English word nīedan.