force

See also: Force, forcé, and forcë

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English force, fors, forse, borrowed from Old French force, from Late Latin or Vulgar Latin *fortia, from neuter plural of Latin fortis (“strong”).

Noun

force (countable and uncountable, plural forces)

  1. Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigour; might; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect.
    the force of an appeal, an argument, or a contract
    • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Macaulay
      He was, in the full force of the words, a good man.
  2. Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare, Henry VI, part II
      which now they hold by force, and not by right
  3. (countable) Anything that is able to make a big change in a person or thing.
  4. (countable, physics) A physical quantity that denotes ability to push, pull, twist or accelerate a body which is measured in a unit dimensioned in mass × distance/time² (ML/T²): SI: newton (N); CGS: dyne (dyn)
  5. Something or anything that has the power to produce an effect upon something else.
    • 2012 March 1, Henry Petroski, “Opening Doors”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 112-3:
      A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentially equivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.
  6. (countable) A group that aims to attack, control, or constrain.
    police force
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare, Cymbeline
      Is Lucius general of the forces?
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0124:
      "A fine man, that Dunwody, yonder," commented the young captain, as they parted, and as he turned to his prisoner. "We'll see him on in Washington some day. He is strengthening his forces now against Mr. Benton out there. […]."
    • 2004 April 15, “Morning swoop in hunt for Jodi's killer”, in The Scotsman:
      For Lothian and Borders Police, the early-morning raid had come at the end one of biggest investigations carried out by the force, which had originally presented a dossier of evidence on the murder of Jodi Jones to the Edinburgh procurator-fiscal, William Gallagher, on 25 November last year.
  7. (uncountable) The ability to attack, control, or constrain.
    show of force
  8. (countable) A magic trick in which the outcome is known to the magician beforehand, especially one involving the apparent free choice of a card by another person.
  9. (law) Legal validity.
    The law will come into force in January.
  10. (law) Either unlawful violence, as in a "forced entry", or lawful compulsion.
  11. (linguistics, semantics, pragmatics) Ability of an utterance or its element (word, form, prosody, ...) to effect a given meaning.
    • 1962, J Gonda, The aspectual function of the R̥gvedic present and aorist, S̓-Gravenhage, Mouton, pages 43:
      When the aspectual force of the verbal categories weakens, the 'terminative', punctual or determinative value of the prefix gains in importance,...
  12. (science fiction) A binding, metaphysical, and ubiquitous power in the fictional Star Wars universe created by George Lucas.
Usage notes
  • Adjectives often applied to "force": military, cultural, economic, gravitational, electric, magnetic, strong, weak, positive, negative, attractive, repulsive, good, evil, dark, physical, muscular, spiritual, intellectual, mental, emotional, rotational, tremendous, huge.
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Translations
strength or energy of body or mind
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

References

Verb

force (third-person singular simple present forces, present participle forcing, simple past and past participle forced)

  1. (transitive) To violate (a woman); to rape. [from 14thc.]
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter v, in Le Morte Darthur, book V:
      For yf ye were suche fyfty as ye be / ye were not able to make resystence ageynst this deuyl / here lyeth a duchesse deede the whiche was the fayrest of alle the world wyf to syre Howel / duc of Bretayne / he hath murthred her in forcynge her / and has slytte her vnto the nauyl
    • 1603, John Florio, transl.; Michel de Montaigne, chapter 1, in The Essayes, […], book II, printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821:
      a young woman not farre from mee had headlong cast her selfe out of a high window, with intent to kill herselfe, only to avoid the ravishment of a rascally-base souldier that lay in her house, who offered to force her […].
  2. (obsolete, reflexive, intransitive) To exert oneself, to do one's utmost. [from 14thc.]
    • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:
      , Bk.XVIII, Ch.xxi:
      And I pray you for my sake to force yourselff there, that men may speke you worshyp.
  3. (transitive) To compel (someone or something) to do something. [from 15thc.]
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0105:
      Captain Edward Carlisle […] felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze, […]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.
    • 2011, Tim Webb & Fiona Harvey, The Guardian, 23 March:
      Housebuilders had warned that the higher costs involved would have forced them to build fewer homes and priced many homebuyers out of the market.
  4. (transitive) To constrain by force; to overcome the limitations or resistance of. [from 16thc.]
  5. (transitive) To drive (something) by force, to propel (generally + prepositional phrase or adverb). [from 16thc.]
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden
      It stuck so fast, so deeply buried lay / That scarce the victor forced the steel away.
    • (Can we date this quote?) William Shakespeare
      to force the tyrant from his seat by war
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Webster
      Ethelbert ordered that none should be forced into religion.
    • 2007, The Guardian, 4 November:
      In a groundbreaking move, the Pentagon is compensating servicemen seriously hurt when an American tank convoy forced them off the road.
  6. (transitive) To cause to occur (despite inertia, resistance etc.); to produce through force. [from 16thc.]
    The comedian's jokes weren't funny, but I forced a laugh now and then.
    • 2009, "All things to Althingi", The Economist, 23 July:
      The second problem is the economy, the shocking state of which has forced the decision to apply to the EU.
  7. (transitive) To forcibly open (a door, lock etc.). [from 17thc.]
    To force a lock.
  8. To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.
  9. (transitive, baseball) To create an out by touching a base in advance of a runner who has no base to return to while in possession of a ball which has already touched the ground.
    Jones forced the runner at second by stepping on the bag.
  10. (whist) To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit that he/she does not hold.
  11. (archaic) To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Webster
      What can the church force more?
  12. (archaic) To provide with forces; to reinforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.
  13. (obsolete) To allow the force of; to value; to care for.
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

Etymology 2

From Old Norse fors (“waterfall”). Cognate with Swedish fors (“waterfall”)

Noun

force (plural forces)

  1. (countable, Northern England) A waterfall or cascade.
    • T. Gray
      to see the falls or force of the river Kent
Translations
waterfall — see waterfall

Etymology 3

See farce (“to stuff”).

Verb

force (third-person singular simple present forces, present participle forcing, simple past and past participle forced)

  1. To stuff; to lard; to farce.
    • Shakespeare
      Wit larded with malice, and malice forced with wit.

Derived terms

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

Anagrams

French

Etymology

From Middle French force, from Old French force, from Late Latin or Vulgar Latin *fortia, re-analyzed as a feminine singular from the neuter plural of Latin fortis. Compare Catalan força, Portuguese força, Italian forza, Spanish fuerza.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /fɔʁs/
  • Audio (France, Paris)(file)
  • Rhymes: -ɔʁs
  • Homophones: forcent, forces

Noun

force f (plural forces)

  1. force.
  2. strength.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Adjective

force (invariable)

  1. (archaic) Many; a lot of; a great quantity of.

Verb

force

  1. first-person singular present indicative of forcer
  2. third-person singular present indicative of forcer
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of forcer
  4. third-person singular present subjunctive of forcer
  5. second-person singular imperative of forcer

Further reading

Middle French

Etymology

From Old French force.

Noun

force f (plural forces)

  1. force (physical effort; physical might)

Descendants

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Late Latin or Vulgar Latin *fortia, re-analyzed as a feminine singular from the neuter plural of Latin fortis.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈfɔr.t͡sə/

Noun

force f (oblique plural forces, nominative singular force, nominative plural forces)

  1. strength; might

Descendants

Portuguese

Verb

force

  1. First-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of forçar
  2. Third-person singular (ele, ela, also used with tu and você?) present subjunctive of forçar
  3. First-person singular (eu) affirmative imperative of forçar
  4. Third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of forçar
  5. First-person singular (eu) negative imperative of forçar
  6. Third-person singular (você) negative imperative of forçar
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