ˈforce-put Now dial.
Also 7–8 forced put.
[perh. forced put was a term of some game, = ‘forced move’; see forced ppl. a. 2 b and put.]
An action rendered unavoidable by circumstances; a ‘Hobson's choice’.
| 1657 G. Starkey Helmont's Vind. 328 To give poysons to purge, in expectation that Nature being forced to play a desperate game, and reduced to a forc't put, may [etc.]. 1662 Sir A. Mervyn Speech on Irish Affairs 3 It must be therefore a forc'd Put, that presseth us on to this address. c 1680 Hickeringill Hist. Whiggism Wks. 1716 I. 118 Sometimes the Laws being put in Execution at a force-put, and then again slackning the Reins and following natural inclination. 1748–61 S. Richardson Clarissa H. (1811) VII. 63 It is, truly, to be ingenuous, a forced put: for my passions are so wound up, that I am obliged either to laugh or cry. 1772 Nugent Hist. Friar Gerund I. 526 He thought that it might pass for a case of necessity, or forced-put. 1876 in N. & Q. Ser. v. V. 266 A tradesman [of Torquay] told me..that he had left his house very early..‘but not from choice, 'twas a force-put’. 1892 Northumb. Gloss., Force-put. |