compesce, v. arch.
(kəmˈpɛs)
Also 5 compesse.
[ad. L. compescĕre to fasten together, restrain, curb. Since 16th c. only in Sc. writers.]
trans. To restrain, repress, curb.
| 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. xiv, By manly force rathest there compesse The spyryte of Ire and melancolye. 1637 Gillespie Eng.-Pop. Cerem. iii. viii. 176 A coactive power to compesce the turbulent. 1680 tr. Buchanan's De Jure Regni (1689) 27 A Plaister to compesce the Eruptions of Flegm. 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 102 Compesce me, muse, these stout bravadoes. 1721 Wodrow Suff. Ch. Scot. (1828) I. Introd. 21 Tyranny which was compesced with very much ado. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. VII. xviii. iii. 132 Oldenburg..has coerced and compesced them into soldierly obedience. |