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force Definition

force (fôrs, fōrs)

noun

  1. strength; energy; vigor; power
  2. the intensity of power; impetus the force of a blow
    1. physical power or strength exerted against a person or thing to use force in opening a door
    2. the use of physical power to overcome or restrain a person; physical coercion; violence to resort to force in dispersing a mob
  4. the power of a person to act effectively and vigorously; moral or intellectual strength force of character
    1. the power to control, persuade, influence, etc.; effectiveness the force of circumstances, an argument lacking force
    2. a person, thing, or group having a certain influence, power, etc. a force for good
  6. the real or precise meaning; basic point to miss the force of something said
    1. military, naval, or air power
    2. the collective armed strength, as of a nation
    3. any organized group of soldiers, sailors, etc.
  8. any group of people organized for some activity a sales force, a police force
  9. Law binding power; validity
  10. Physics the cause, or agent, that puts an object at rest into motion or alters the motion of a moving object: abbrev. F

Etymology: ME < OFr < VL *fortia, *forcia < L fortis, strong: see fort

transitive verb forced, forc′·ing

  1. to cause to do something by or as if by force; compel
  2. to rape (a woman)
    1. to break open, into, or through by force to force a lock
    2. to make (a way, etc.) by force
    3. to overpower or capture by breaking into, through, etc. to force the enemy's stronghold
  4. to get or take by force; wrest; extort forcing the gun from his hand
  5. to drive by or as by force; cause to move against resistance; impel to force an article into a filled box
  6. to impose by or as by force: with on or upon to force one's attentions on another
  7. to effect or produce by or as by force; produce by unusual or unnatural effort to force a smile
  8. to exert beyond the natural limits or capacity; strain to force one's voice
  9. to cause (plants, fruit, etc.) to develop or grow faster by artificial means
  10. Obsolete
    1. to give or add force to
    2. to put in force
  11. ☆ Baseball
    1. to cause (a base runner) to be put out by a force-out: said of a batter
    2. to cause (a runner) to score or (a run) to be scored by walking the batter with the bases full: often with in
    1. Card Games to cause (an opponent) to play (a particular card)
    2. Bridge to make a bid that requires (one's partner) to bid in response

Etymology: ME forcen < OFr forcer < VL *fortiare < *fortia, *forcia: see the n.

force Related Forms
force′·able adjective force′·less adjective forc′er noun
force Idioms

in force

  1. in full strength; in full number
  2. in effect; operative; valid
force Synonyms

force

n.

  1. Physical power

    strength, energy, might; see strength 1.

  2. Physical power exerted against a person or thing

    coercion, violence, compulsion, duress; see oppression 1, restraint 2.

  3. The power to act effectively

    forcefulness, vitality, energy, vigor, assertiveness, dominance, competence, persistence, willpower, drive, determination, effectiveness, efficiency, efficacy, authority, strength, impressiveness, intensity, vehemence, dynamism, capability, potency, power, puissance, punch*, push*, gumption*, oomph*, pizazz*. *

    Antonyms weakness, impotence, incompetence.

  4. A group organized for joint action

    band, crew, detachment, team, troop, cell, division, unit, contingent; see also army 2, organization 3.

in force

  1. in full strength, totally, all together; see all 2.

  2. operative, valid, in effect;

force Synonyms

force

v.

  1. To use force

    compel, coerce, press, drive, make, impel, constrain, oblige, urge, push, thrust, propel, urge forward, obligate, necessitate, require, enforce, demand, order, decree, command, inflict, burden, impose, fix, apply, insist, exact, draft, dragoon, blackmail, extort, bind, put under obligation, contract, charge, restrict, limit, pin down, choke out, bring pressure to bear upon, pressure, bear hard upon, bear down upon, obtrude on, break through, bludgeon, steamroller, ram down one's throat*, put the squeeze on*, high-pressure*, strong-arm*, put the screws on*, twist one's arm*, smoke out*. *

  2. To break open

    burst, pry open, prize open, break into, extort, wrest, undo, use a bar on, assault, jimmy, crack*, crack open*, bust*, bust open*.

  3. To rape

    violate, attack, assault; see rape.

  4. To capture by assault

    take, win, overcome, overpower; see seize 2.

force implies the exertion of power in causing a person or thing to act, move, or comply against his or its resistance and may refer to physical strength or to any impelling motive forced the protestors into the van, circumstances forced him to lie; compel implies a driving irresistibly to some action, condition, etc. hunger compelled him to look for work to coerce is to compel submission or obedience by the use of superior power, intimidation, threats, etc. troops coerced the crowd to disperse; constrain implies the operation of a restricting force and therefore suggests a strained, repressed, or unnatural quality in that which results a constrained laugh

force Law Definition

n

Power or strength.
deadly force
. Force used which is known or expected, or should be expected to cause death.
in force
. Legal validity, as with a law or regulation that is “in force.”
force Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • join: The firm joined forces with rival Viridor in a 50/50 partnership called Lakeside Energy from Waste to build the plant.
  • drive: What have been the driving forces behind the new model?
  • peacekeepe: The perception of impartiality is important for the protection of the peacekeeping force.

Adjective modifier

  • armed: Yes, the pressure is serious; it is just outside, in Kuwait; it is the armed forces.
  • military: The world today is not one in which military forces are the most effective means of power.
  • Iraqi: The security situation is still completely out of hand for either the occupying powers or the new Iraqi security forces.
  • productive: That alone provides conditions for democracy and allows the productive forces to expand in an unfettered manner.

Preposition: into

  • exile: During the Second World War, King Haakon of Norway was forced into exile in England when the Germans occupied his country.

Modifies a noun

  • majeure: Regulation 7: use of legal jargon ( ' force majeure ' ).

Noun used with modifier

  • police: We believe police forces would rather see a stick on legible plate than a small plate which cannot be read.
  • coalition: Nevertheless, the coalition forces are still unable to penetrate the Iraqi defenses.
  • labor: The leading export sectors in South America, including the flower industry, use a predominantly female labor force.
  • driving: Marx argued that the main driving force behind capitalist crises lies in what he called the tendency of the rate of profit to fall.
  • task: We remain at our guns as the task force races at flank speed seeking battle.
  • gale: Severe weather warnings had preceded the gale force winds that had whipped the sea into 30 feet waves.

Infinitive complement

  • flee: Mr. Blair was forced to flee through the backdoor in order to leave the premises.
  • resign: This is the second time that Blunkett has been forced to resign form the Blair cabinet.
  • withdraw: On the other hand, the Iraqi command is being forced to withdraw its troops under the protection of towns.

Preposition: of

  • conservatism: Tony Blair should take a leaf from Scotland and stand up against the forces of conservatism that want to carry on killing for fun.
force Quotes

All along the line, physically, mentally, morally, alcohol is a weakening and deadening force, and it is worth a great deal to save women and girls from its influence.

—Webb, (Martha) Beatrice ne¤  e Potter

All governments use force and all assert that they are founded on reason. In fact, whether universal suffrage prevails or not, it is always an oligarchy that governs, finding ways to give to'the will of the people'the expression which the few desire.

—Pareto,Vilfredo

The woman voter would be pernicious to the State not only because she could not back her vote by physical force, but also by reason of her intellectual defects.

—Wright, SirAlmroth Edward

Better to use force when you should rather than when you must.

—Shultz, George P(ratt)

Whatevereachmancanseparatelydo, withouttrespassing upon others, he has a right to dofor himself; and he has a right to a fair portion of all whichsociety, with all its combination of skill and force, can do in his favour.

—Burke, Edmund

Le Bonheur e¤  tait ma fatalite¤  , mon remords, mon ver: ma vie serait toujours trop immense pour e"  tre de¤  voue¤  e a'   la force et a'   la beaute¤  . Happiness was my fate, my remorse, my worm: my life would always be too large to be dedicated to force and to beauty.

—Rimbaud, (Jean Nicolas) Arthur

If the United Nations once admits that international disputes can be settled by using force, we will have destroyed the foundation of the organization and our best hope of establishing a world order.

—Eisenhower, Dwight D(avid)

O thou whom envy ev'n is force t'admire!

—Daniel, Samuel

He delights to expose the raw nerves of evil, showing it as a force in the world, a skeletonlike figure working visible mischief in the ordinary everydayaffairs of men and women and children.

—Church, Richard

Force is the same throughout and the whole is in every part of it. Force is a spiritual power, an invisible energy which isimparted by violence from without toall bodies out of their natural balance.

—Leonardo daVinci

La force a fait les premiers esclaves, leur la"  chete¤   les a perpe¤  tue¤  s. Force made the first slaves; their cowardice perpetuated slavery.

—Rousseau,JeanJacques

   If you were to destroy in mankind the belief in immortality, not only love but every living force maintaining the life of the world would at once be dried up.

—Doolittle,James Harold

We will only leave our places by the force of the bayonet!

—Mirabeau, Honore¤   Gabriel Riqueti, Comte de

The force that propels the human spirit on the clear way forward and upward is the abstract spirit.

—Kandinsky,Wassily

First follow Nature, and your judgement frame By her just standard, which is still the same: Unerring Nature, still divinely bright, One clear, unchanged, and universal light, Life, force and beauty must to all impart, At once the source and end and test of art.

—Pope, Alexander

Men are grown mechanical in head and in the heart, as well as in the hand. They have lost faith in individual endeavour, and in natural force of any kind.

—Carlyle,Thomas

May the Force be with you.

—Lucas, George

Mutationem motus proportionalem esse vi motrici impressae et fieri secundum lineam rectam qua vis illa imprimitur. The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed.

—Newton, Sir Isaac

No princely pomp, no wealthy store, No force to win the victory, No wily wit to salve a sore, No shape to feed each gazing eye; To none of these I yield as thrall. For why my mind doth serve for all.

—Dyer, Sir Edward

A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees; Rolled round in earth's diurnal course With rocks, and stones and trees.

—Wordsworth,William

Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast on nature.

—Bronowski,Jacob

There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight; there issuch a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.

—Wilson, (Thomas) Woodrow

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.

—King, Martin LutherJr

Other nations use'force'; we Britons alone use'might'.

—Waugh, Evelyn Arthur StJohn

I have chased the English out of France more easily than my fathereverdid, for my fatherdrovethemout by force of arms, whereas I have driven them out with venison pies and good wine.

—Louis XI

Our patience will achieve more than our force.

—Burke, Edmund

EŁ  loquence quipersuade par douceur, non par empire, en tyran, non en roi. Eloquence should persuade gently, not by force or like a tyrant or king.

—Pascal, Blaise

Sometimes it's hard to remember that bourgeois property is the real revolutionary force these days. All over the world we're bringing down dictatorshipsöorat least forcing them to go condo.

—O'Rourke, P(atrick) J(ake)

He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel force, Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.

—Tennyson

Ulster will not be a consenting party.Ulster, attheproper time, will resort to the supreme arbitrament of force; Ulster will fight and Ulster will be right.

—Churchill, Lord Randolph Henry Spencer

The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry fever.

—Thomas, Dylan Marlais

Tonality is a natural force, like gravity.

—Hindemith, Paul

'It is the unofficial forceöthe Baker Street irregulars.'As he spoke, there came a swift pattering of naked feet upon the stairs, a clatter of high voices, and in rushed a dozen dirtyand ragged little street Arabs.

—Doyle, SirArthur Conan

   Theuse of forcealoneisbuttemporary.It maysubduefor a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.

—Burke, Edmund

Who overcomes By force, hath overcome but half his foe.

—Milton,John

But the adventure, the conquest of an unknown country, thestruggle against theimpossible, all have a fascination which draws me with an irresistible force.

—Hedin, Sven Anders

   Patience et longueur de temps Font plus que force ni que rage. Patience and longevity Are worth more than force and rage.

—La Fontaine,Jean de