Antonyms for compulsion

Grammar : Noun

Spell : kuh m-puhl-shuh n

Phonetic Transcription : kəmˈpʌl ʃən

Definition of compulsion

Origin : early 15c., from Middle French compulsion, from Latin compulsionem (nominative compulsio) "a driving, urging," noun of action from past participle stem of compellere "compel" (see compel). Psychological sense is from 1909 in A.A. Brill's translation of Freud's "Selected Papers on Hysteria," where German Zwangsneurose is rendered as compulsion neurosis.

noun drive, obligation

Example sentences :

And do you think me so spiritless as to believe that I can be yours by compulsion?
Extract from : « Maid Marian » by Thomas Love Peacock

You can wish you had stood all this; inevitable as the compulsion must have been!
Extract from : « Clarissa, Volume 3 (of 9) » by Samuel Richardson

I only know that I must wait—that compulsion is greater than my strength to combat.
Extract from : « There is a Reaper ... » by Charles V. De Vet

The method of compulsion failed to keep the tenants on the land.
Extract from : « The Enclosures in England » by Harriett Bradley

She was driven by a compulsion to which fatigue was nothing.
Extract from : « The Innocent Adventuress » by Mary Hastings Bradley

But what we would not do voluntarily we had to do by compulsion.
Extract from : « Harper's Young People, June 22, 1880 » by Various

No; were I at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion.
Extract from : « The Universal Reciter » by Various

Was this the compulsion that had driven her into marriage with the wrong man?
Extract from : « The Manxman » by Hall Caine

Whatever the compulsion put upon her, she ought to have withstood it.
Extract from : « The Manxman » by Hall Caine

It is not founded on the principle of arbitration or compulsion.
Extract from : « Herbert Hoover » by Vernon Kellogg

Synonyms for compulsion

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019