What's the difference between compel and extort?

Compel


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To drive or urge with force, or irresistibly; to force; to constrain; to oblige; to necessitate, either by physical or moral force.
  • (v. t.) To take by force or violence; to seize; to exact; to extort.
  • (v. t.) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
  • (v. t.) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
  • (v. t.) To call forth; to summon.
  • (v. i.) To make one yield or submit.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But he lost much of his earnings betting on cards and horses, and he has readily admitted that it was losses of up to £750,000 a night that compelled him to make some of his worst films.
  • (2) This provides a compelling argument that the protein kinase function of p37mos is an intrinsic property of the protein.
  • (3) Compelling evidence of the transference in this case occurred in the ninth month of treatment when the therapist told the child that she would be going on vacation.
  • (4) "We continue to believe that our final proposal was compelling and represented full value for AstraZeneca based on the information that was available to us," said the British-born executive.
  • (5) These advances will compel hospitals to plan for their funding and implementation.
  • (6) Certainly the affidavit against Ferdaus paints a compelling picture of a man hellbent on waging jihad in America and eager to take the guns and explosives eventually supplied to him by the undercover FBI agents.
  • (7) The Hollande team maintained that all topics were on the table and also held open the prospect that France could refuse to ratify Merkel's fiscal pact compelling debt and deficit reduction in the eurozone unless eurobonds were recognised as a possible tool.
  • (8) As a self-described rationalist, she felt compelled to act.
  • (9) Brown makes policy statements all the time, and we know exactly what he's said about social justice etc - but he has never been able to give the public a compelling answer to this question.
  • (10) The evidence has long been compelling that the primary fuel of what the US calls terrorism are the very policies of aggression justified in the name of stopping terrorism .
  • (11) Christine Langan of BBC Films told Screen Daily: "Compelling, funny and moving, Gold is a gem of a story and BBC Films is proud to be participating in bringing it to an international audience."
  • (12) The symbolism and the politics of the law are far more troubling and far more toxic than the actual substance of what the law will do itself.” That symbolism compelled store owners in Indianapolis to put up signs that say: “Instead of hate, we proudly serve everyone,” “This Hoosier still opposes the anti-LGBT license to discriminate,” and “Open for service!
  • (13) The bill, voted through a panel of the house energy and power subcommittee, would compel Obama to over-rule demands for a further review of the project from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and disregard local opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline from landowners along its 1,700-mile route.
  • (14) Pickles said he would also be making an order under the Local Government Act 2000 to compel Rotherham council to hold all-out elections in 2016 and every fourth year thereafter.
  • (15) In the Museum of the Warsaw Rising, the sound effects are powerful, the visuals compelling, the tragedy forcefully conveyed.
  • (16) Because we're a species of storytellers, we find movie-plot threats uniquely compelling .
  • (17) These results were perceived as scientifically compelling as well as clinically relevant.
  • (18) Extraterrestrials Decades of searching for signs of alien life have so far turned up a blank, yet the question of whether life on Earth is a one-off is among the most compelling in science.
  • (19) Although findings in animals are compelling, observations in humans are less clear.
  • (20) His videos make for compelling first-person testimony.

Extort


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To wrest from an unwilling person by physical force, menace, duress, torture, or any undue or illegal exercise of power or ingenuity; to wrench away (from); to tear away; to wring (from); to exact; as, to extort contributions from the vanquished; to extort confessions of guilt; to extort a promise; to extort payment of a debt.
  • (v. t.) To get by the offense of extortion. See Extortion, 2.
  • (v. i.) To practice extortion.
  • (p. p. & a.) Extorted.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But with a civil war raging and no one to protect them, most migrants are at risk of kidnap, extortion and forced labour.
  • (2) As the gangs fragmented, many increasingly focused on extortion, kidnapping and human trafficking.
  • (3) The prize catch was his sister, Patrizia Messina Denaro, 43, accused of running the effort to channel extorted cash to fuel her brother's life on the run.
  • (4) And with the cartels come other nightmares: kidnapping, extortion, contract killers and people trafficking.
  • (5) "There are no social programmes or prevention projects and, OK, there are fewer murders, but delinquency, extortion and kidnappings are up.
  • (6) The government will need to continue with extra-judicial killings, commonly called crossfire, until terrorist activities and extortion are uprooted."
  • (7) They prey on the population, kidnapping and extorting in cahoots with criminal gangs, according to multiple complaints filed to the human rights commission.
  • (8) Mexican drug cartels have been waging an increasingly bloody war to control smuggling routes, the local drug market and extortion rackets, including shakedowns of migrants seeking to reach the United States.
  • (9) The official, who refused to be quoted by name, said Barankov was accused of summoning random people to his office, telling them they were being investigated and extorting bribes to close non-existent cases.
  • (10) But they are also brutal killers and methamphetamine dealers who extort everyone from big corporations to street vendors throughout Michoácan, according to residents and government officials.
  • (11) The latest film sees Bond travel from Mexico to the Sahara desert, Italy and the Austrian Alps in pursuit of SPECTRE – an acronym for Special Executive for Counter-Intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion – the sinister organisation intent on world domination.
  • (12) Sumo wrestling , already suffering a tarnished reputation, is facing its greatest scandal in years amid revelations of extortion, illegal gambling and ties with the criminal underworld.
  • (13) Despite an increase in police crackdowns, yakuza membership is steadily rising amid richer pickings from extortion, prostitution, drug smuggling, property deals and even stock market deals as Japan's economy emerges from its "lost decade" of recession.
  • (14) Officials from the defence ministry, run by Rajapaksa's brother, Gotabhaya, have said many of the abductions since the end of the conflict were of "underworld characters involved in organised crime, drug trade, extortion, kidnapping and such antisocial activities".
  • (15) Meanwhile, at the top of the tree, managers of the maquiladoras – faced with recession and competition from Asia – needed fewer workers, spewing their surplus humanity (which flocked here from all over Mexico) into the new narco-economy of "opportunities" for murder, extortion and kidnapping.
  • (16) He told the New York Times : "How is this not extortion?
  • (17) "From what I know of the Nigerian police, they look for every opportunity to extort money.
  • (18) With time, the focus of Shaltai-Boltai’s activities shifted from political statement to straight extortion.
  • (19) Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings, warned in May last year that it risked simply creating better-trained criminals – or police who "would be able to extort more effectively".
  • (20) It said that some of the information that formed the basis of the allegations against it “has been gathered as a result of criminal activity including extortion”.