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Force   /fɔrs/   Listen
noun
Force  n.  A waterfall; a cascade. (Prov. Eng.) "To see the falls for force of the river Kent."


Force  n.  
1.
Capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect; strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigor; might; often, an unusual degree of strength or energy; especially, power to persuade, or convince, or impose obligation; pertinency; validity; special signification; as, the force of an appeal, an argument, a contract, or a term. "He was, in the full force of the words, a good man."
2.
Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion; as, by force of arms; to take by force. "Which now they hold by force, and not by right."
3.
Strength or power for war; hence, a body of land or naval combatants, with their appurtenances, ready for action; an armament; troops; warlike array; often in the plural; hence, a body of men prepared for action in other ways; as, the laboring force of a plantation; the armed forces. "Is Lucius general of the forces?"
4.
(Law)
(a)
Strength or power exercised without law, or contrary to law, upon persons or things; violence.
(b)
Validity; efficacy.
5.
(Physics) Any action between two bodies which changes, or tends to change, their relative condition as to rest or motion; or, more generally, which changes, or tends to change, any physical relation between them, whether mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic, or of any other kind; as, the force of gravity; cohesive force; centrifugal force.
Animal force (Physiol.), muscular force or energy.
Catabiotic force (Biol.), the influence exerted by living structures on adjoining cells, by which the latter are developed in harmony with the primary structures.
Centrifugal force, Centripetal force, Coercive force, etc. See under Centrifugal, Centripetal, etc.
Composition of forces, Correlation of forces, etc. See under Composition, Correlation, etc.
Force and arms (Law), an expression in old indictments, signifying violence.
In force, or Of force, of unimpaired efficacy; valid; of full virtue; not suspended or reversed. "A testament is of force after men are dead."
Metabolic force (Physiol.), the influence which causes and controls the metabolism of the body.
No force, no matter of urgency or consequence; no account; hence, to do no force, to make no account of; not to heed. (Obs.)
Of force, of necessity; unavoidably; imperatively. "Good reasons must, of force, give place to better."
Plastic force (Physiol.), the force which presumably acts in the growth and repair of the tissues.
Vital force (Physiol.), that force or power which is inherent in organization; that form of energy which is the cause of the vital phenomena of the body, as distinguished from the physical forces generally known.
Synonyms: Strength; vigor; might; energy; stress; vehemence; violence; compulsion; coaction; constraint; coercion. Force, Strength. Strength looks rather to power as an inward capability or energy. Thus we speak of the strength of timber, bodily strength, mental strength, strength of emotion, etc. Force, on the other hand, looks more to the outward; as, the force of gravitation, force of circumstances, force of habit, etc. We do, indeed, speak of strength of will and force of will; but even here the former may lean toward the internal tenacity of purpose, and the latter toward the outward expression of it in action. But, though the two words do in a few cases touch thus closely on each other, there is, on the whole, a marked distinction in our use of force and strength. "Force is the name given, in mechanical science, to whatever produces, or can produce, motion." "Thy tears are of no force to mollify This flinty man." "More huge in strength than wise in works he was." "Adam and first matron Eve Had ended now their orisons, and found Strength added from above, new hope to spring Out of despair."


verb
Force  v. t.  To stuff; to lard; to farce. (R.) "Wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit."


Force  v. t.  (past & past part. forced; pres. part. forcing)  
1.
To constrain to do or to forbear, by the exertion of a power not resistible; to compel by physical, moral, or intellectual means; to coerce; as, masters force slaves to labor.
2.
To compel, as by strength of evidence; as, to force conviction on the mind.
3.
To do violence to; to overpower, or to compel by violence to one's will; especially, to ravish; to violate; to commit rape upon. "To force their monarch and insult the court." "I should have forced thee soon wish other arms." "To force a spotless virgin's chastity."
4.
To obtain, overcome, or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress; as, to force the castle; to force a lock.
5.
To impel, drive, wrest, extort, get, etc., by main strength or violence; with a following adverb, as along, away, from, into, through, out, etc. "It stuck so fast, so deeply buried lay That scarce the victor forced the steel away." "To force the tyrant from his seat by war." "Ethelbert ordered that none should be forced into religion."
6.
To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce. (Obs.) "What can the church force more?"
7.
To exert to the utmost; to urge; hence, to strain; to urge to excessive, unnatural, or untimely action; to produce by unnatural effort; as, to force a conceit or metaphor; to force a laugh; to force fruits. "High on a mounting wave my head I bore, Forcing my strength, and gathering to the shore."
8.
(Whist) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit of which he has none.
9.
To provide with forces; to reenforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison. (Obs.)
10.
To allow the force of; to value; to care for. (Obs.) "For me, I force not argument a straw."
Synonyms: To compel; constrain; oblige; necessitate; coerce; drive; press; impel.


Force  v. i.  (Obs. in all the senses.)
1.
To use violence; to make violent effort; to strive; to endeavor. "Forcing with gifts to win his wanton heart."
2.
To make a difficult matter of anything; to labor; to hesitate; hence, to force of, to make much account of; to regard. "Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear." "I force not of such fooleries."
3.
To be of force, importance, or weight; to matter. "It is not sufficient to have attained the name and dignity of a shepherd, not forcing how."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Force" Quotes from Famous Books



... state of things was a universal rejection of domestic service in all classes of American-born society. For a generation or two, there was, indeed, a sort of interchange of family strength,—sons and daughters engaging in the service of neighboring families, in default of a sufficient working force of their own, but always on conditions of strict equality. The assistant was to share the table, the family sitting-room, and every honor and attention that might be claimed by son or daughter. When families increased in refinement and education so ...
— Household Papers and Stories • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... preparation. I knew that something of a gigantic nature had been planned and that the time was close at hand. I also knew that whatever it was it would surely succeed, for nothing could resist the combined force of all that preparation when the final word was given. I cannot but admit that enormous quantity of ammunition, the vast number of light and heavy guns, the thousands of men ready for the fray, caused me ...
— In the Flash Ranging Service - Observations of an American Soldier During His Service - With the A.E.F. in France • Edward Alva Trueblood
... compared with the right, full, finished setting of such a talent; but the essence of them was now, irremovably, in our young man's eyes, the vision of how the uplifted stage and the listening house transformed her. That idea of her having no character of her own came back to him with a force that made him laugh in the empty street: this was a disadvantage she reduced so to nothing that obviously he hadn't known her till to-night. Her character was simply to hold you by the particular spell; any other—the good nature of home, ...
— The Tragic Muse • Henry James
... other human beings, as phenomena, under the same generalizations which I know by experience to be the true theory of my own existence. And in doing so I conform to the legitimate rules of experimental inquiry. The process is exactly parallel to that by which Newton proved that the force which keeps the planets in their orbits is identical with that by which an apple falls to the ground. It was not incumbent on Newton to prove the impossibility of its being any other force; he was thought to have made out his point when he had simply shown that no other force need ...
— An Introduction to Philosophy • George Stuart Fullerton
... extraordinary head of hair. The hair, though not very long, is very bushy, so that it takes the capillary artist no less than a day to succeed in reducing this forest into a small bulk. As it requires some force to draw the comb through the hair, the operation is painful, and this is why the Abyssinian women have it performed every forty or fifty days only. The Abyssinian women of rank pass their life in almost complete ...
— Scientific American Supplement, No. 664, September 22,1888 • Various


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