Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb By necessity; by force of circumstance.
from The Century Dictionary.
- By force or violence; of necessity.
- To force; constrain; compel.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb obsolete To force; to compel.
- adverb By force; of necessary; at any rate.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adverb archaic By
force . - adverb Necessarily.
- verb obsolete To
force ; tocompel .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb by necessity; by force of circumstance
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Hence, the mere presence of Nato troops – extending the writ of the central government - perforce, is an achievement in itself.
More equals less? Richard 2006
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They are more like children to him, even the hunters, and as children he treats them, descending perforce to their level and playing with them as a man plays with puppies.
Chapter 8 2010
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He who loves one must perforce love all the world and all the unborn worlds.
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His quick-changing facial expressions might tell every thought and mood, but the tongue, perforce, ran hard after, repeating, like a second Boswell.
All Gold Cañon 2010
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By sunset this exchange of boats was made, and we said good-by to our Greek, who perforce had to go into Benicia and be locked up for his own violation of the law.
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** Obscure in the sense that no one read it the first time, perforce the second.
White House Spellcheck FAIL. - Moe_Lane’s blog - RedState 2009
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In the days when you had to stoke the coal stove and scrub the washing, class differences were perforce more pronounced.
Electric Liberation, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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The water still poured in, and perforce we doubled up in the cockpit and tossed it out again.
White and Yellow 2010
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For food I gathered a few vegetables from farms on the fringe of the forest, which, perforce, I had to eat raw and after ten days on this diet found that I was able to eat only enough to keep me going.
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Had the Factor gone but one step farther, perforce Snettishane would himself have mentioned the name of Lit-lit, but -- the Factor had not gone that one step farther.
elgiad007 commented on the word perforce
This is also the name of my preferred source control tool, Perforce.
November 5, 2008
elgiad007 commented on the word perforce
How does one use this word? It seems so odd and doesn't easily roll off the tongue.
Is the following correct: "Regrettably and with much hesitance, the source control tool was perforce replaced with Team Foundation Server."
November 5, 2008
dontcry commented on the word perforce
"To sleep, perforce to dream."
November 5, 2008
sionnach commented on the word perforce
"To sleep, perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub"
November 5, 2008
dontcry commented on the word perforce
Ah... so close! I should have done my reasearch! Ha!
November 5, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word perforce
Richard of Gloucester: You must have patience, gentle Clarence.
George of Clarence: (holding up his handcuffed hands) I must, perforce.
November 5, 2008