coerce
[koh-urs]
- to compel by force, intimidation, or authority, especially without regard for individual desire or volition: They coerced him into signing the document.
- to bring about through the use of force or other forms of compulsion; exact: to coerce obedience.
- to dominate or control, especially by exploiting fear, anxiety, etc.: The state is based on successfully coercing the individual.
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Origin of coerce
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
bully, intimidate, suppress, repress, strong-arm, browbeat, terrorize, hinder, bulldoze, force, cow, urge, oblige, make, drive, impel, beset, push, threaten, constrainExamples from the Web for coerced
Contemporary Examples
No doubt, there are wrongful convictions that result from misidentification and coerced confessions.
The police eventually obtained two written confessions that the brothers would describe as coerced.
How the North Carolina GOP Made a Wrongfully Convicted Man a Death Row ScapegoatMichael Daly
September 4, 2014
Her mother, from the United States, had been coerced by friends into organizing the operation.
I was coerced into receiving oral sex from a girl I did not want to have sex with.
While still living with Marion, Flemmi coerced Debbie Hussey at the age of 18 into a sexual relationship (he was 42).
Historical Examples
Something in him at once coerced her friendliest confidence.
The SpendersHarry Leon Wilson
No one is coerced to labour, but in proportion as a man does labour he makes use of capital.
FreelandTheodor Hertzka
And this activity is spontaneous, in the sense that it is not coerced from without.
Mind and Motion and MonismGeorge John Romanes
I have no doubt that the coerced perusal of them to which he had to submit did him a deal of good.
The Book-HunterJohn Hill Burton
If she could be so coerced we would destroy her brain before she could act.
Masters of SpaceEdward Elmer Smith
coerce
- (tr) to compel or restrain by force or authority without regard to individual wishes or desires
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Word Origin
C17: from Latin coercēre to confine, restrain, from co- together + arcēre to enclose
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for coerced
coerce
v.
mid-15c., cohercen, from Middle French cohercer, from Latin coercere "to control, restrain, shut up together," from com- "together" (see co-) + arcere "to enclose, confine, contain, ward off," from PIE *ark- "to hold, contain, guard" (see arcane). Related: Coerced; coercing. No record of the word between late 15c. and mid-17c.; its reappearance 1650s is perhaps a back-formation from coercion.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper