Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Propel \Pro*pel"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Propelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Propelling.] [L. propellere, propulsum; pro forward + pellere to drive. See Pulse a beating.] To drive forward; to urge or press onward by force; to move, or cause to move; as, the wind or steam propels ships; balls are propelled by gunpowder.
Wiktionary
vb. (present participle of propel English)
WordNet
adj. tending to or capable of propelling; "propellant fuel for submarines"; "the faster a jet plane goes the greater its propulsive efficiency"; "universities...the seats of propulsive thought" [syn: propellant, propellent, propulsive]
See propel
Usage examples of "propelling".
The weary tendons propelling him caught and skipped like frayed cables, one excruciating step after another.
As the barrel of the pistol rose towards her, Deb made a small and breathy noise, not a scream but saturated in fear, and Wimbarton let out a squawk, propelling the mountebank across the room with an almighty shove.
The thought of letting Littel fall back into the hands of Palle and his company was propelling him along at new found speed.
Now as he spoke a trass took that opportunity to snatch the bait and run with the line, propelling Lester upright.
Economic forces were already propelling the decline of villeinage, and commutation continued, despite the crushing of the revolt, until the unfree peasant gradually disappeared.
The others followed him inside, propelling Bryce Babcock and the former President before them.
Sign it, Caledon, he commanded, each word propelling gouts of yellow sulphurous smoke from his mouth, like a bad case of spectral halitosis.
Then, growling low in his throat, he shoved Mris-ste, propelling the hatless Mec backward.
Yossarian and Dunbar were busy in a far corner pawing orgiastically at four or five frolicsome girls and six bottles of red wine, and Hungry Joe had long since tramped away down one of the mystic hallways, propelling before him like a ravening despot as many of the broadest-hipped young prostitutes as he could contain in his frail wind-milling arms and cram into one double bed.
Meri hesitated on the threshold, and Zhena Trelu gave each a firm push in the small of the back, propelling them into the dim, sawdusty interior.
The heart, which is the chief organ for propelling the blood, acts as a force pump, while the arteries and veins serve as tubes for conveying the blood from place to place.
Instinctively, Beckett slashed his knife up, toward the groin area, whge propelling his body out of the water.
He rolled down and onto his back, propelling the attacker over him and jettisoning him into the back of a parked car.
Propelling Mildred through the bedroom she snatched open the curtains.
Twenty-five tons of liquid hydrogen ignited, sending a rush of superheated gases through the engine nozzles, propelling the massive spacecraft against the pull of gravity.