coerce

/koʊˈʌrs/

/kəʊˈʌs/

Other forms: coerced; coercing; coerces

You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make him drink. You can coerce — or pressure — someone to attend your office holiday party, but you can't make him have fun.

If you're at a point where you feel like you need to coerce someone into doing something, it might be more civilized to just give up. To coerce is to manipulate, use aggressive arguments, pressure unfairly, or threaten — really, this isn't very civilized behavior, is it? Handy synonyms for this verb include force and pressure. In a gangster film, you might hear a character say he "put the squeeze" on someone — another way of saying he coerced them.

Definitions of coerce

1. verb

   cause to do through pressure or necessity, by physical, moral or intellectual means
   synonyms: force, hale, pressure, squeeze

   types:

   turn up the heat, turn up the pressure

   apply great or increased pressure

   drive

   compel or force or urge relentlessly or exert coercive pressure on, or motivate strongly

   bludgeon

   overcome or coerce as if by using a heavy club

   steamroll, steamroller

   bring to a specified state by overwhelming force or pressure

   squeeze for

   squeeze someone for money, information, etc.

   dragoon, railroad, sandbag

   compel by coercion, threats, or crude means

   terrorise, terrorize

   coerce by violence or with threats

   bring oneself

   cause to undertake a certain action, usually used in the negative

   type of:

   compel, obligate, oblige

   force somebody to do something