compulsion
/kəmˈpʌlʃ(ə)n
/noun
1 [mass noun] The action or state of forcing or being forced to do something; constraint: the payment was made under compulsion...
- Parliament has since amended the law, in the light of that judgment, to make evidence obtained under compulsion inadmissible.
- If at all they had called her, it had been under compulsion from either the film directors or the producers.
- The property is not seized, but has to be handed over under compulsion, with refusal generally constituting contempt.
Synonyms
obligation, constraint, force, coercion, duress, pressure, pressurization, enforcement, oppression, intimidation;
French force majeure
2An irresistible urge to behave in a certain way: he felt a compulsion to babble on about what had happened...
- Assessments were made using the BDI, and clinician rated obsessions and compulsions for each individual patient.
- The value of the SSRIs to treat the obsessions and compulsions associated with TS remains to be resolved.
- They can sometimes recognize that their obsessions and compulsions are unrealistic.
Synonyms
urge, impulse, need, necessity, desire, longing, motivation, drive;
obsession, fixation, addiction;
temptation, pull
US informal jones
Origin
Late Middle English: via Old French from late Latin compulsio(n-), from compellere 'to drive, force' (see compel).
Rhymes
- there is no saying
- there is no telling
- there is nothing like
- there is nothing to it
- (there is) no time like the present
- there is only one thing for it
- there is something in ——
- there it is
- theremin
- thereof
- thereon
- there or thereabouts
- thereout
- there's
- Theresa
- Theresa, Mother
- there's honour among thieves
- there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle
- there's many a slip 'twixt cup and lip
- there's more than one way to skin a cat
- there's more to someone (or something) than meets the eye
- there's no accounting for tastes (or taste)
- there's no fool like an old fool
- there's no law against it
- there's none so blind as those who will not see