force > define
noun
- A powerful effect or influence.
- usage: "the force of his eloquence easily persuaded them"
- Physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity. (
- usage: "force equals mass times acceleration"
- Physical energy or intensity.
- usage: "he hit with all the force he could muster"; "it was destroyed by the strength of the gale"; "a government has not the vitality and forcefulness of a living man"
- synonyms: forcefulness, strength
- Group of people willing to obey orders.
- usage: "a public force is necessary to give security to the rights of citizens"
- synonyms: personnel
- A unit that is part of some military service.
- usage: "he sent Caesar a force of six thousand men"
- synonyms: military unit, military force, military group
- An act of aggression (as one against a person who resists. )
- usage: "he may accomplish by craft in the long run what he cannot do by force and violence in the short one"
- synonyms: violence
- One possessing or exercising power or influence or authority.
- usage: "the mysterious presence of an evil power"; "may the force be with you"; "the forces of evil"
- synonyms: power
- A group of people having the power of effective action.
- usage: "he joined forces with a band of adventurers"
- Of a law. ( having legal validity)
- usage: "the law is still in effect"
- synonyms: effect
- A putout of a base runner who is required to run; the putout is accomplished by holding the ball while touching the base to which the runner must advance before the runner reaches that base.
- usage: "the shortstop got the runner at second on a force"
- synonyms: force out, force-out, force play
verb
- (v.) ()
- Urge or force (a person) to an action; constrain or motivate.
- synonyms: impel
- (v.) ()
- synonyms: push
- Impose urgently, importunately, or inexorably.
- usage: "She forced her diet fads on him"
- synonyms: thrust
- Squeeze like a wedge into a tight space.
- usage: "I squeezed myself into the corner"
- Force into or from an action or state, either physically or metaphorically.
- usage: "She rammed her mind into focus"; "He drives me mad"
- Cause to move by pulling.
- usage: "draw a wagon"; "pull a sled"
- Do forcibly; exert force.
- usage: "Don't force it"
- Take by force.
- usage: "Storm the fort"
- synonyms: storm
by WordNet 3.0 © 2006 by Princeton University
- (n.) To compel, as by strength of evidence; as, to force conviction on the mind.
- (n.) A waterfall; a cascade.
- (n.) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
- (n.) 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.
- (n.) To allow the force of; to value; to care for.
- (n.) Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
- (v.i.) To make a difficult matter of anything; to labor; to hesitate; hence, to force of, to make much account of; to regard.
- (n.) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit of which he has none.
- (n.) 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.
- (n.) To impel, drive, wrest, extort, get, etc., by main strength or violence; -- with a following adverb, as along, away, from, into, through, out, etc.
- (n.) 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.
- (n.) To do violence to; to overpower or to compel by violence to one;s will; especially, to ravish; to violate; to commit rape upon.
- (v.i.) To use violence; to make violent effort; to strive; to endeavor.
- (n.) Validity; efficacy.
- (n.) To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
- (v.i.) To be of force, importance or weight; to matter.
- (n.) Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigor; might; often, an unusual degree of strength or energy; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect; 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.
- (n.) To provide with forces; to reenforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
- (v.t.) To stuff; to lard; to farce.
- (n.) 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 consient or metaphor; to force a laugh; to force fruits.
- (n.) Strength or power exercised without law or contrary to law, upon persons or things; violence.
by Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary