- 1to force someone to do something; to make something necessary compel somebody to do something 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. compel something Last year bad health compelled his retirement.
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- 2compel something (not used in the progressive tenses) to cause a particular reaction He spoke with an authority that compelled the attention of the whole crowd. see compulsion
compel
verbNAmE//kəmˈpɛl//
(formal)Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they compel he / she / it compels
past simple compelled
-ing form compelling
Check pronunciation: compel