convince
/kənˈvɪns
/- Until someone convinces me, I believe it would weaken the power of Leeds City Council.
- He is desperate to convince us that he believes in the rightness of his actions.
- The hardest trick to pull is convincing someone that the truth is a lie.
Synonyms
- His father's death convinces him not to change the world but to save it.
- She said the Mayor had convinced her to bring a group of people to Ballina for the annual Festival next July.
- The British reaction to earlier shows convinced him to bring Smile over here.
Synonyms
Usage
Convince used (with an infinitive) as a synonym for persuade first became common in the 1950s in the US, as in she convinced my father to branch out on his own. Some traditionalists deplore the blurring of distinction between convince and persuade, maintaining that convince should be reserved for situations in which someone’s belief is changed but no action is taken as a result (he convinced me that he was right) while persuade should be used for situations in which action results (he persuaded me rather than he convinced me to seek more advice). In practice the newer use is well established.
Derivatives
convincer
- Initially, this wasn't much of a convincer; when she was single and dating, Tonya employed a companion-locating algorithm that had steered her to Adam, after all.
- I was asked by several of my fellow theatergoers during the intermission and I swore to my integrity, placing my hand on the Bible I'd lifted from my last hotel room as a convincer.
- Now, in such a situation a really clever operator will only drop in a few of the ‘convincers’ that he has already developed and stored away.
convincible
- You have to rethink on your presentation to be more convincible, or you will surely be considered as an mouth piece of an organization and nothing more.
- Freddie Prinze, Jr. would not make a convincible Fred, as characterised in the show.
- Whatever else may be said of Peter Reith - and I particularly liked the Treasurer's comment in Parliament last week that he is ‘a very convincible fellow’ - it has to be conceded he is persistent.
Origin
Mid 16th century (in the sense 'overcome, defeat in argument'): from Latin convincere, from con- 'with' + vincere 'conquer'. Compare with convict.
Rhymes
- postinfection
- postinfectious
- postinflammatory
- posting
- post-ironic
- postirradiation
- postischaemic
- Post-it
- Post-it note
- postjacent
- postjudice
- postjudiced
- postjunctional
- postlady
- postlapsarian
- post-larva
- post-larval
- 'postle
- postlike
- postliminary
- postliminium
- postliminous
- postliminy
- post line
- postliteral