1. Cause to do through pressure or necessity, by physical, moral or intellectual means
   "She forced him to take a job in the city";
   - coerce, hale [archaic], squeeze, pressure
    
2. Urge or force (a person) to an action; constrain or motivate
   "Her conscience forced her to confess";
   - impel
    
3. Move with force
   "He forced his way through the crowd";
   - push
    
4. Impose urgently, importunately, or inexorably
   "She forced her diet fads on him";
   - thrust
    
5. Force into or from an action or state, either physically or metaphorically
   "They forced him to resign";
   - drive, ram
    
6. Do forcibly; exert force
   "Don't force it!"
    
7. Force to fit into (or through) a tight space
   "I forced myself into the corner";
   - wedge, squeeze, squash, sardine [informal]
    
8. Take by force
   "force the fort";
   - storm

1. Physical energy or intensity
   "he hit with all the force he could muster";
   - forcefulness, strength
    
2. (physics) the influence that produces a change in a physical quantity
   "force equals mass times acceleration"
    
3. A powerful effect or influence
   "the force of his eloquence easily persuaded them"
    
4. Organized group of people available for a particular purpose, especially military or law enforcement
   "an additional force was deployed to maintain order";
   - personnel
    
5. (military) a unit that is part of some military service
   "he sent Caesar a force of six thousand men";
   - military unit, military force, military group
    
6. A group of people having the power of effective action
   "he joined forces with a band of adventurers"
    
7. One possessing or exercising power or influence or authority
   "may the force be with you"; "the forces of evil";
   - power
    
8. An act of aggression (as one against a person who resists)
   "he may accomplish by craft in the long run what he cannot do by force and violence in the short one";
   - violence
    
9. (of a law) having legal validity
   "the law is still in force";
   - effect
    
10. (baseball) a putout of a base runner who is required to run; the putout is accomplished by holding the ball while touching the base to which the runner must advance before the runner reaches that base
    "the shortstop got the runner at second on a force";
    - force out, force-out, force play

Derived forms: forces, forced, forcing

See also: force out, gouge, repulse, screw

Type of: act, aggression, causal agency, causal agent, cause, compel, displace, do, engender, hostility, influence, intensity, intensiveness, make, move, obligate, oblige, org [informal], organisation [Brit], organization, penetrate, physical phenomenon, pierce, putout, social group, social unit, thrust, unit, validity, validness

Antonym: draw

Part of: armed service, military service, service

Encyclopedia: Force, PA