Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Definition for CO-ERCE'
CO-E'QUAL-LYCO-ERCE'A-BLE-NESS
CO-ERCE', v.t. [coers'; L. coerceo; con and arceo, to drive or press.]
- To restrain by force; to keep from acting, or transgressing, particularly by moral force, as by law or authority; to repress. – Ayliffe.
- To compel; to constrain. These causes … coerced by those which preceded and coercing those which followed. – Dwight. Theol.
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