Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Imposed by force; involuntary.
  • adjective Produced under strain; not spontaneous.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Effected by an unusual application of force or effort.
  • Overstrained; unnatural; affected; artificial.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Done or produced with force or great labor, or by extraordinary exertion; hurried; strained; produced by unnatural effort or pressure
  • adjective See under Draught.
  • adjective (Mil.) a march of one or more days made with all possible speed.

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

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of force.
  • adjective obtained forcefully, not naturally
  • adjective opened or accessed using force

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

  • adjective produced by or subjected to forcing
  • adjective made necessary by an unexpected situation or emergency
  • adjective forced or compelled
  • adjective lacking spontaneity; not natural

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Just as well as the seal in traps may be forced back by the increased pressure of the air within the pipes, the same seal may be _forced out_, pulled out, aspirated, or siphoned out by a sudden withdrawal of a large quantity of air from the pipes with which the trap is connected.

    The Home Medical Library, Volume V (of VI) Kenelm Winslow

  • They may be (1) _living_ or _dead_; (2) _forced_ or _avoidable_; (3) _momentous_ or _trivial_; and for our purposes we may call an option a _genuine_ option when it is of the forced, living, and momentous kind.

    The Making of Arguments J. H. Gardiner

  • I shall never forget the joy it gave me, -- the gratitude it caused me, -- the good it did me, at the very moment when I was forced, _ay forced_ to reject that offer.

    Fairy Fingers A Novel Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt Ritchie 1844

  • When you use the term forced busing, what do you refer to specifically?

    Oral History Interview with Jesse Helms, March 8, 1974. Interview A-0124. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) 1974

  • This, perhaps, would be the right way of beginning a story (not that it is a story exactly), with the title forced on me by the name and nature of the hero.

    Angling Sketches Andrew Lang 1878

  • I don't think any of the babes did like it at the time, not even Heidi (who usually loves Xenomania) but the label forced the release of it.

    unknown title 2009

  • I don't think any of the babes did like it at the time, not even Heidi (who usually loves Xenomania) but the label forced the release of it.

    unknown title 2009

  • I don't think any of the babes did like it at the time, not even Heidi (who usually loves Xenomania) but the label forced the release of it.

    unknown title 2009

  • When they flee, in what we call forced migration, they're going into the region to live amongst the poor.

    CNN Transcript Feb 7, 2009 2009

  • But that's what happened when the Texas Education Agency put its science curriculum director Chris Comer on administrative leave in late October, leading to what she calls a forced resignation.

    Zach Marks: Hey Science, Don't Mess with Texas 2008

Comments

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  • FORCED: A large group of trees, as “Lemme showya mah pine forced.”

    July 2, 2012