coercive, a.
(kəʊˈɜːsɪv)
Also 7 coersive.
[irreg. f. coerce + -ive, by association with words in -ive formed on ppl. stems in s, as aspersive, aversive, conversive; Littré cites a F. coercif of 16th c., but coercitif is the recognized form in F.]
A. adj.
1. Of the nature of coercion; having the attribute of coercing.
| a 1600 Hooker Eccl. Pol. vii. iii. §1 Power..coercive over other ministers. 1647 May Hist. Parl. iii. i. 5 The King..had taken a more harsh and coercive way. 1725 Pope Odyss. xi. 360 Twelve moons the foe the captive youth detains In painful dungeons, and coercive chains. 1836 D. W. Harvey in Hansard Parl. Deb. Ser. iii. XXXII. 22 If..it was necessary to resort to coercive legislation, in order to make men religious? 1858 Froude Hist. Eng. III. 92 A coercive police..who would have held down the people while they learnt their lesson by starvation. 1880 W. E. Forster Let. Gladstone 25 Oct., Should we accompany our coercive measure by any counter-bill? 1881 Mrs. P. O'Donoghue Ladies on Horseback ii. iv. 59 [A rider] adopting coercive measures for his own safety. |
2. Compelling assent or belief, convincing.
| 1650 Fuller Pisgah 369, I see no coercive argument, to enforce his belief to the contrary, can be taken out of Scripture. 1728 Pope's Dunc. i. 104 note, His reasons for this Fury..are so strong and so coercive. 1755 B. Martin Mag. Arts & Sci. 27 The next Phænomenon..is equally coercive, if Men would reflect or attend to it at all. |
3. Having the power of physical pressure or compression. Cf. coercion 3.
| 1650 Bulwer Anthropomet. 21 Free from the coercive power of head-bands and other artificial violence. 1664 Evelyn Pomona (1729) Gen. Advt. 94 It may seem incredible, that so thin a skin should be more coercive to a mutinous Liquor, than a Barrel. a 1729 Blackmore (J.), All things on the surface spread, are bound By their coercive vigour to the ground. |
4. coercive force: the hypothetical force in a magnetic substance which resists the separation of the two magnetic ‘fluids’, and which resists their reunion when they have been separated.
| 1827 J. Cumming Man. Electro Dynamics iv. 168 That resistance to a change in the direction of the particles, which, in the common theory of magnetism, is termed its coercive force. 1839 Penny Cycl. XIV. 288/1 A nonconducting energy, called the coercive power, exists in magnetic substances, by which the loss of magnetism when developed is prevented..This is not the case with soft iron, which has not the coercive force. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6) I. xv. 407 Philosophers have been obliged to infer the existence of a special force..They call it coercive force. 1962 Corson & Lorrain Introd. Electromagn. Fields vii. 282 The magnitude of the magnetic field intensity H at this point is known as the coercive force. |
B. quasi-n. A coercive means or measure.
| 1651 Jer. Taylor Serm. (1678) 12 His tribunal takes cognisance of all causes, and hath a coercive for all. 1706 De Foe Jure Div. Pref. 31 They..would push upon Coercives..and make equal Restraints upon their Fellow Christians. 1822 P. Beauchamp (G. Grote) Anal. Influence Nat. Relig. (1875) 23 No known apprehension will act as a sufficient coercive upon his mind. |