Coerce meaning

kō-ûrs'
The definition of coerce means to use force or scare tactics to get someone to do something.

An example of coerce is for a person to threaten his friend if the friend does not steal money for him.

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To pressure, intimidate, or force (someone) into doing something.
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To restrain or constrain by force, esp. by legal authority; curb.
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To bring about by using force; enforce.
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To restrain by force, especially by law or authority; to repress; to curb.
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To use force, threat, fraud, or intimidation in attempt to compel one to act against his will.
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To bring about or gain by pressure, threat, or force.

Coerced agreement among the parties; coerced a confession from the suspect.

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To force or compel, as by threats, to do something.
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(computing) To force an attribute, normally of a data type, to take on the attribute of another data type.
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Origin of coerce

  • Latin coercēre to control, restrain co- co- arcēre to enclose, confine
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • From Latin coercere (“to surround, encompass, restrain, control, curb”), from co- (“together”) + arcere (“to inclose, confine, keep off”); see arcade, arcane, ark.
    From Wiktionary

Coerce Sentence Examples

  • He even managed to coerce the children into doing the dishes.

  • When the king brought over a few Irish soldiers to coerce the English, Sarsfield came in command of them.

  • The refusal of the soldiers to coerce the Assembly showed that the monarchy could no longer rely on the army; and a few days later, when the lesser nobility and the lower ranks of the clergy had united with the third estate whose cause was their own, the king yielded, and on the 27th of June commanded both orders to join in the National Assembly, which was thereby recognized and the political revolution sanctioned.

  • Events, indeed, might readily have gone in favour of the moderates had Carnot acted with decision; but he relapsed into strange inactivity, while Barras and his military tool prepared to coerce the majority.

  • Early in his term he carried out a policy he had urged upon the government when minister to France and when vice-president, by dispatching naval forces to coerce Tripoli into a decent respect for the trade of his country - the first in Christendom to gain honourable immunity from tribute or piracy in the Mediterranean.

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