COERCE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Coerce

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/koʊˈərs/ Listen

verb

Coerce v. t. (past & past part. coerced; pres. part. coercing)

To restrain by force, especially by law or authority; to repress; to curb. "Punishments are manifold, that they may coerce this profligate sort."

To compel or constrain to any action; as, to coerce a man to vote for a certain candidate.

To compel or enforce; as, to coerce obedience.

Synonyms: To Coerce, Compel. To compel denotes to urge on by force which cannot be resisted. The term aplies equally to physical and moral force; as, compelled by hunger; compelled adverse circumstances; compelled by parental affection. Coerce had at first only the negative sense of checking or restraining by force; as, to coerce a bad man by punishments or a prisoner with fetters. It has now gained a positive sense., viz., that of driving a person into the performance of some act which is required of him by another; as, to coerce a man to sign a contract; to coerce obedience. In this sense (which is now the prevailing one), coerce differs but little from compel, and yet there is a distinction between them. Coercion is usually acomplished by indirect means, as threats and intimidation, physical force being more rarely employed in coercing.

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Etymology of 'Coerce'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Coerce" Quotes from Famous Books

... in any way founded on physical science. The scientific professor, feeling the ground strong under his feet, and sure of the applause of his very numerous public, has made a bold bid for the control of the moral order. He has made a serious attempt to capture the ethical world, and to coerce morality into obedience to the inflexible formulae of physics. The evolutionist, in particular, is consumed with an irresistible desire to stretch the ethical ideal on his procrustean couch and to show how, like everything else, it has been the subject ...

— Morality as a Religion - An exposition of some first principles • W. R. Washington Sullivan

... rescript of the duke himself, powers which warranted her interference with the liberty of young females who were denounced to her by their parents, guardians, or others who might have a semblance of a right to control or coerce them. ...

— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds

... most in the discomfiture of the Tory agent, who had vainly hoped to coerce him in the stack yard without Marget's presence, as her intellectual contempt for the ...

— Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush • Ian Maclaren

... authority of your legal guardian, my father, Colonel Le Noir, who will forestall your foolish purpose of throwing yourself and your fortune away upon a beggar, even though to do so he strain his authority and coerce you into taking a more suitable companion," said Craven Le Noir, rising impatiently and pacing the floor. But no sooner had he spoken these words than he saw how greatly he had injured his cause and ...

— Capitola the Madcap • Emma D. E. N. Southworth

... may be added that there is a fourth form of monopoly which would be open to the same double attack, but it is one of which less has been heard in Great Britain than in the United States. It is possible under a competitive system for rivals to come to an agreement. The more powerful may coerce the weaker, or a number of equals may agree to work together. Thus competition may defeat itself, and industry may be marshalled into trusts or other combinations for the private advantage against the public interest. Such combinations, predicted by Karl Marx as ...

— Liberalism • L. T. Hobhouse

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