COMPEL in a Sentence

Learn COMPEL from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For COMPEL, below is one of 120 sentences:
Prosecutors, grand jurors, marshals and court stenographers are legally compelled not to reveal what happens in the grand jury room.

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 Meanings and Examples of COMPEL
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
compel
 v.  force; coerce; necessitate or pressure by force
Classic Sentence: (104 in 7 pages)
1  Then it is because you haven't the will; but I have means to compel you.
A Doll's House By Henrik Ibsen
Context  Highlight   In ACT I
2  Come here now, Nelly: I must either persuade or compel you to aid me in fulfilling my determination to see Catherine, and that without delay.
Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XIV
3  It suited Catherine to have him there: at any rate, it made her hate her room up-stairs more than ever: and she would compel me to find out business below, that she might accompany me.
Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXXII
4  Edmond, my friend, do not compel me to tarnish that noble and pure image reflected incessantly on the mirror of my heart.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 89. A Nocturnal Interview.
5  Besides, the provident law has deprived you of the power to disinherit me, at least entirely, as it has also of the power to compel me to marry Monsieur This or Monsieur That.
The Count of Monte Cristo By Alexandre Dumas
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 95. Father and Daughter.
6  Mattie was her relation, not his: there were no means by which he could compel her to keep the girl under her roof.
Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In VII
7  The second Mrs. Calvert had never known how to compel respect from negro servants and it was not to be expected that she could get it from a white man.
Gone With The Wind By Margaret Mitche
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXIX
8  The instant her voice broke off, ceasing to compel my attention, my belief, I felt the basic insincerity of what she had said.
The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald
Context  Highlight   In Chapter 1
9  I would rather not have gone into this question at present, but you compel me.
Return of the Native By Thomas Hardy
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 4: 1 The Rencounter by the Pool
10  The same power that compels her silence may compel her speech.
Dracula By Bram Stoker
Context  Highlight   In CHAPTER XXIV
11  Nor did she know reticence: before any one she would disclose her mind, and no force could compel her to maintain silence when she desired to speak.
Dead Souls By Nikolai Gogol
Context  Highlight   In PART 2: CHAPTER I
12  But, at the same time certain facts arise, compel recognition, and knock at the door in their turn.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER I—WELL CUT
13  His manhood was humbled by the part he was compelled to play and by the thought of what Mattie must think of him.
Ethan Frome By Edith Wharton
Context  Highlight   In VIII
14  She was compelled by threats, if not by violence, to make the charge against the victim.
Southern Horrors By Ida B. Wells-Barnett
Context  Highlight   In III
15  A piece of red flannel was wrapped around Mademoiselle's throat; a stiff neck compelled her to hold her head on one side.
The Awakening By Kate Chopin
Context  Highlight   In XXVI
Example Sentence: (16 in 2 pages)
1  Why, Jane, what would you have? I fear you will compel me to go through a private marriage ceremony.
2  He would compel her to listen to what he had to say; he would never again jeopardize their happiness by allowing her to misunderstand him.
3  Why, Jane, what would you have? I fear you will compel me to go through a private marriage ceremony, besides that performed at the altar.
4  The law will compel employers to provide health insurance.
5  His courage and skill compel our admiration.
6  The Senate duly approved Mr Rajoy's request to apply Article 155 of the constitution; it grants the government wide powers to compel a region to obey the constitution.
7  Local housing authorities have been compelled by the housing crisis to make offers of sub-standard accommodation.
8  The students ought not to be compelled to go back of academic titles to find out what they mean.
9  Prosecutors, grand jurors, marshals and court stenographers are legally compelled not to reveal what happens in the grand jury room.
10  Your cleverness and skill has compelled our admiration.
11  The dearth of skilled labor compelled the employers to open trade schools.
12  I'll do the best I can with it, even if I am compelled to pilfer from the pages of the book.
13  A fight-to-the-last-breath duel is often more compelling than merely a parade of highlight plays.
14  They had better not succeed in compelling anyone to work the proposed shift to midnight.
15  The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it.