impel

From Middle English impellen, borrowed from Latin impellō.

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɛl/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɛl

impel (third-person singular simple present impels, present participle impelling, simple past and past participle impelled)

1. (transitive) To urge a person; to press on; to incite to action or motion via intrinsic motivation.

   Antonym: (to compel or drive extrinsically) propel

   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp‎:

     She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

   • 2016, Noam Chomsky, What Kind of Creatures Are We?, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 61:

     Concern for the common good should impel us to find ways to overcome the devilish impact of these disastrous policies […]

2. (transitive) To drive forward; to propel an object, to provide an impetus for motion or action.

   Synonym: propel

• expel

• impellent
• impeller
• impetus
• impulse

• impel in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
• impel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913