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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
compelling
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a compelling reason (=a very good reason for doing something)
▪ There are compelling reasons to believe that this is true.
convincing/compelling (=making you feel sure that something is true)
▪ The data provides compelling evidence that the climate is changing.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
▪ No, there is another, and far more compelling, explanation.
▪ He'd have to have a much more compelling reason than that.
▪ The similarity of the central flower in mosaic 7 with that in the same position in mosaic C is more compelling.
▪ Evidence to support a defect in cell mediated immunity is more compelling.
▪ Nor are they necessarily equal in strength; the outer form may be more compelling than inner character, or viceversa.
most
▪ He'd had the most compelling eyes she'd ever encountered.
▪ To her bewilderment, though, she suddenly experienced a most compelling feeling of not wanting to leave Mariánské Láznë next Tuesday!
▪ It is this later Holiday which most recognise and her admirers point to her last years as her most compelling.
▪ But it was his eyes that were most compelling.
■ NOUN
evidence
▪ The new studies provide compelling evidence in support of these concepts.
reason
▪ But, in any event, there is no compelling reason to justify section 9.
▪ Unless there are other compelling reasons, therefore, never borrow money yourself to obtain funds needed by your corporation.
▪ The record is good but there is no compelling reason to buy.
▪ He'd have to have a much more compelling reason than that.
▪ It is unlikely that an adjournment will be granted in these circumstances unless there are particularly compelling reasons.
▪ The Commission could find no compelling reason of public interest which could justify the position of the United Kingdom's government.
▪ Threats in the external environment also provide a compelling reason to expand beyond the home market.
▪ There is no compelling reason why a Bill should lapse at the end of a parliamentary session.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
make (for) interesting/fascinating/compelling etc reading
▪ A glance at the provisions of the Convention makes interesting reading.
▪ He also has a collection of Rentokil news letters going back to his early days which made for fascinating reading after dinner.
▪ His observations may make interesting reading.
▪ In the context of the £33 million earmarked for 20 City Technology Colleges, that figure makes interesting reading.
▪ Its Report was published in 1867 and makes fascinating reading.
▪ The guidance, when it appears, should make interesting reading.
▪ The report I commissioned on you makes for interesting reading.
▪ This, unlike the first one, makes interesting reading, and is referred to continually.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a compelling story
▪ Freud's approach to the analysis of dreams is highly compelling.
▪ It is hard to find a more compelling reason to quit smoking than the fact that it affects your children's health.
▪ Orwell's 'Burmese Days' is a compelling account of life under British Colonial rule.
▪ The film was so compelling I could scarcely take my eyes off the screen for a second.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But none of them is very compelling.
▪ He'd had the most compelling eyes she'd ever encountered.
▪ He'd have to have a much more compelling reason than that.
▪ It's all great stuff, and compelling cinema.
▪ Sordid and diseased, perhaps, but there's already a compelling and coherent vision at work.
▪ There are compelling societal priorities and pressures to carry out policies of child protection.
▪ This approach to the nature of dreaming is highly compelling.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Compelling

Compel \Com*pel"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Compelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Compelling.] [L. compellere, compulsum, to drive together, to compel, urge; com- + pellere to drive: cf. OF. compellir. See Pulse.]

  1. To drive or urge with force, or irresistibly; to force; to constrain; to oblige; to necessitate, either by physical or moral force.

    Wolsey . . . compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
    --Hallam.

    And they compel one Simon . . . to bear his cross.
    --Mark xv. 21.

  2. To take by force or violence; to seize; to exact; to extort. [R.]

    Commissions, which compel from each The sixth part of his substance.
    --Shak.

  3. To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.

    Easy sleep their weary limbs compelled.
    --Dryden.

    I compel all creatures to my will.
    --Tennyson.

  4. To gather or unite in a crowd or company. [A Latinism] ``In one troop compelled.''
    --Dryden.

  5. To call forth; to summon. [Obs.]
    --Chapman.

    She had this knight from far compelled.
    --Spenser.

    Syn: To force; constrain; oblige; necessitate; coerce. See Coerce.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
compelling

c.1600, present participle adjective from compel. Meaning "irresistible" is from 1901. Related: Compellingly.

Wiktionary
compelling
  1. requiring urgent attention. v

  2. (present participle of compel English)

WordNet
compelling

See compel

compelling
  1. adj. driving or forcing; "compelling ambition"

  2. tending to persuade by forcefulness of argument; "new and compelling evidence"

compel
  1. v. force or compel somebody to do something; "We compel all students to fill out this form" [syn: oblige, obligate]

  2. make someone do something [syn: command, require]

  3. [also: compelling, compelled]

Usage examples of "compelling".

When we happened to find those places already tenanted by other men, we forced them by violence to quit the premises, and defrauded the miserable victims of prostitution of the mean salary the law allows them, after compelling them to yield to our brutality.

The amphicyon glared in helpless rage at the small human sitting high above it, the human that was forcing, bending, compelling.

He went fast, knowing that his careful battle line would be shredded by the oaks, but also knowing that any chance of finding an open Yankee flank was too compelling to be ignored.

So compelling was his message, so unusual his appearance, that within a week Palestinians as far away as Jerusalem, nearly fifty miles southeast of Bethabara, had been alerted.

I heard the rhythmic beat of the drum, the booming bodhran, urgent, compelling.

Teenocracy, a campily compelling future history whose retrospective unlikelihood reveals just how wrong a linear sf projection can be.

On the contrary, he became very aggressive in compelling them to respect the laws and authority of the United States, and largely through his firmness and stern efforts the whole Fenian campaign was abandoned.

The act of the three Fools was peculiarly compelling, faintly disturbing, wistful and wild in turns, austere and scatological, the exhortations of gentle fanatics, anarchists with a sense of humour, three raucous saints who were immensely professional in their direct simplicity.

Caroline Fordyce and wondering at the compelling sensations that had gripped him.

Compelling physical evidence - photos, for example, or diaries, or gonorrhoea or chlamydia in the child - have in some cases come to light.

His extra foot of height gave him an advantage, compelling Jaguarundi to extend those flashing arms to their limit, making the hybrid work harder.

However, the fact remains that for the two centuries since, Lesotho has been entirely overshadowed by the much more compelling story of South Africa as a whole.

The characters are compelling, and watching Lukan develop from a good but gentle and very ordinary man into a hero with an iron will, fascinated me.

At the same time, however, Article 9 also possessed a compelling psychological attraction to a shattered people sick of war and burdened by the knowledge that much of the world reviled them as inherently militaristic and untrustworthy.

A challenge to string theory is to provide a compelling explanation of present and future neutrino data, especially if experiments ultimately show that neutrinos do have a tiny but nonzero mass.