Definitions for the word "force" from multiple English dictionaries.
1. v. t.
To stuff; to lard; to farce.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
2. n.
A waterfall; a cascade.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
3. n.
Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigor; might; often, an unusual degree of strength or energy; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect; especially, power to persuade, or convince, or impose obligation; pertinency; validity; special signification; as, the force of an appeal, an argument, a contract, or a term.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
4. n.
Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
5. n.
Strength or power for war; hence, a body of land or naval combatants, with their appurtenances, ready for action; -- an armament; troops; warlike array; -- often in the plural; hence, a body of men prepared for action in other ways; as, the laboring force of a plantation.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
6. n.
Strength or power exercised without law, or contrary to law, upon persons or things; violence.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
7. n.
Validity; efficacy.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
8. n.
Any action between two bodies which changes, or tends to change, their relative condition as to rest or motion; or, more generally, which changes, or tends to change, any physical relation between them, whether mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic, or of any other kind; as, the force of gravity; cohesive force; centrifugal force.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
9. n.
To constrain to do or to forbear, by the exertion of a power not resistible; to compel by physical, moral, or intellectual means; to coerce; as, masters force slaves to labor.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
10. n.
To compel, as by strength of evidence; as, to force conviction on the mind.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
11. n.
To do violence to; to overpower, or to compel by violence to one;s will; especially, to ravish; to violate; to commit rape upon.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
12. n.
To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
13. n.
To impel, drive, wrest, extort, get, etc., by main strength or violence; -- with a following adverb, as along, away, from, into, through, out, etc.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
14. n.
To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
15. n.
To exert to the utmost; to urge; hence, to strain; to urge to excessive, unnatural, or untimely action; to produce by unnatural effort; as, to force a consient or metaphor; to force a laugh; to force fruits.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
16. n.
To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit of which he has none.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
17. n.
To provide with forces; to reenforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
18. n.
To allow the force of; to value; to care for.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
19. v. i.
To use violence; to make violent effort; to strive; to endeavor.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
20. v. i.
To make a difficult matter of anything; to labor; to hesitate; hence, to force of, to make much account of; to regard.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
21. v. i.
To be of force, importance, or weight; to matter.
Source: The 1913 Webster Unabridged Dictionary, 1913
22. n.
1 power; strength, impetus; intense effort. 2 coercion, compulsion. 3 a military strength. B organized body of soldiers, police, etc. 4 a moral, intellectual, or legal power, influence, or validity. B person etc. With such power (force for good). 5 effect; precise significance. 6 a influence tending to cause a change in the motion of a body. B intensity of this. v. (-cing) 1 compel or coerce (a person) by force. 2 make a forcible entry into; break open by force. 3 drive or propel violently or against resistance. 4 make (a way) by force. 5 (foll. By on, upon) impose or press on (a person). 6 cause, produce, or attain by effort (forced a smile; forced an entry). 7 strain or increase to the utmost. 8 artificially hasten the growth of (a plant). 9 seek quick results from; accelerate (force the pace). force a person''s hand make a person act prematurely or unwillingly. Force the issue make an immediate decision necessary. In force 1 valid (laws now in force). 2 in great strength or numbers (attacked in force). [latin fortis strong]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
23. n.
N.engl. Waterfall. [old norse]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
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Additional Info
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