compulsion
[kuh m-puhl-shuh n]
- the act of compelling; constraint; coercion.
- the state or condition of being compelled.
- Psychology. a strong, usually irresistible impulse to perform an act, especially one that is irrational or contrary to one's will.
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Origin of compulsion
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for compulsion
Contemporary Examples
And many fans may feel a compulsion to add their voice to the crowd shouting out for these rights to be protected.
Ultimately, his fascination with the drug gave way to compulsion and a struggle to break the habit.
Why should the compulsion to excel—which propels these privileged students to Oxford.
One step too far, and ambition turns into unrealistic expectations, compulsion into craziness.
Are Female Long-Distance Runners More Prone To Suicidal Depression?Emily de la Bruyere
February 3, 2014
Like the gymnast and the ballerina, the distance runner is often defined by drive and compulsion.
Are Female Long-Distance Runners More Prone To Suicidal Depression?Emily de la Bruyere
February 3, 2014
Historical Examples
And do you think me so spiritless as to believe that I can be yours by compulsion?
Maid MarianThomas Love Peacock
You can wish you had stood all this; inevitable as the compulsion must have been!
Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9)Samuel Richardson
I only know that I must wait—that compulsion is greater than my strength to combat.
There is a Reaper ...Charles V. De Vet
The method of compulsion failed to keep the tenants on the land.
The Enclosures in EnglandHarriett Bradley
She was driven by a compulsion to which fatigue was nothing.
The Innocent AdventuressMary Hastings Bradley
compulsion
- the act of compelling or the state of being compelled
- something that compels
- psychiatry an inner drive that causes a person to perform actions, often of a trivial and repetitive nature, against his or her willSee also obsession
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Word Origin
C15: from Old French, from Latin compellere to compel
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 compulsion
n.
early 15c., from Middle French compulsion, from Latin compulsionem (nominative compulsio) "a driving, urging," noun of action from past participle stem of compellere "compel" (see compel). Psychological sense is from 1909 in A.A. Brill's translation of Freud's "Selected Papers on Hysteria," where German Zwangsneurose is rendered as compulsion neurosis.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
compulsion
(kəm-pŭl′shən)- An uncontrollable impulse to perform an act, often repetitively, as an unconscious mechanism to avoid unacceptable ideas and desires which, by themselves, arouse anxiety.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
compulsion
In psychology, an internal force that leads persons to act against their will. A “compulsive” act cannot be controlled: “Smith was a compulsive gambler.”
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.