Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of impel.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective markedly effective as if by emotional pressure

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word impelling.

Examples

  • But our social wisdom insists that we obey the choices of instinct; our social wisdom is only another phase of our refinement, which, in impelling us to a love of the beautiful, does not the less impel us to love.

    The Kempton-Wace Letters 2010

  • Right here, I think, entered the austere conscience of my Puritan ancestry, impelling me toward lurid deeds and sanctioning even murder as right conduct.

    Chapter 16 2010

  • At the beginning Daughtry strove to walk aloof, but in a trice, in the first heavy gust that threatened to whisk the frail old man away, Dag Daughtry's hand was grasping the other's arm, his own weight behind and under, supporting and impelling forward and up the hill through the heavy sand.

    CHAPTER XXI 2010

  • Israel's perception of the Iranian threat, Mr. Parsi says, has long "resembled prophesy more than reality," impelling the Jewish state to frame its conflict with Iran's clerical regime "as one between the sole democracy in the Middle East and a theocracy that hated everything the West stood for."

    It Takes Two to Engage Sohrab Ahmari 2012

  • There are impelling political reasons for this prohibition, which must under no circumstance be violated.

    Wild Bill Donovan Douglas Waller 2011

  • Their very noses serrulated and shook in brute passion, and they snarled as the wolves snarl, with all the hatred and malignity of the breed impelling them to spring upon the woman and drag her down.

    LI-WAN, THE FAIR 2010

  • There are impelling political reasons for this prohibition, which must under no circumstance be violated.

    Wild Bill Donovan Douglas Waller 2011

  • On the instant he struck, Lute lightly touched his neck with the rein, impelling him to the left; and in that instant, tottering on the insecure footing, with front feet slipping over into the pool beyond, he lifted on his hind legs, with a half turn, sprang to the left, and dropped squarely down to the tiny gravel bed.

    Jack London's Story - Moon Face: Planchette pg 3 of 3 2010

  • I had seen before was strong upon me, impelling me to give service to

    Chapter 39 2010

  • Would that this theme were more fully developed in "The Normal Heart," for it is the conceptual spine that gives the play its impelling force.

    Larry Kramer, Loud and Clear Terry Teachout 2011

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.