What's the difference between compel and repel?

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.

Repel


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To drive back; to force to return; to check the advance of; to repulse as, to repel an enemy or an assailant.
  • (v. t.) To resist or oppose effectually; as, to repel an assault, an encroachment, or an argument.
  • (v. i.) To act with force in opposition to force impressed; to exercise repulsion.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The effects of common repellents on the membrane fluidity of Escherichia coli were measured by the fluorescence polarization of the probe 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene in liposomes made of lipids extracted from the bacteria and in membrane vesicles.
  • (2) It is suggested that the capacity of large doses of L3T4+ cells to protect mice against lethal GVHD is a reflection of T helper function: the cellular immunity provided by the donor L3T4+ cells enables the host to repel pathogens entering through damaged mucosal surfaces, with the result that GVHD becomes sublethal.
  • (3) Repellent effect of the Mannich bases (methoxyphenol derivatives) on Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and Xenopsylla cheopis fleas was revealed under laboratory and field conditions.
  • (4) We have recently prepared a carbon fibre micro-electrode (mCFE) which specifically pretreated and coated with Nafion (a negatively charged polymer which repels acids such as 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC)) allows the direct selective detection of the oxidation of DA and 5-HT in nanomolar concentration in vitro and that of extracellular basal levels of cerebral 5-HT in vivo (peak B at +240 mV).
  • (5) A couple of years later, he patented a method of producing a water-repellent textile.
  • (6) These compounds possess insecticidal and repellent properties.
  • (7) Tory toffs repelling undesirable immigrants, providing better schools, using welfare reform as a pathway to work, clearing vandals, yobs and drunks from the streets and standing up to our masters in Brussels would be very popular, and the word would soon be forgotten.
  • (8) Repellent addition has previously been shown to stimulate MCP demethylation.
  • (9) Of 33 compounds tested, 8 were repellents for B. bacteriovorus strain UKi2: n-caproate, alanine, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, cobaltous chloride, and hydronium ion.
  • (10) The CDC and other health agencies have been operating for months on the assumption that Zika causes brain defects, and they have been warning pregnant women to use mosquito repellent, avoid travel to Zika-stricken regions and either abstain from sex or rely on condoms.
  • (11) But maybe, just maybe, they won’t, for they represent real forces and articulate real passions that Labour and the Conservatives, and now the Lib Dems, have so far utterly failed to repel.
  • (12) The treatment involved the use of repelling magnets for the distalization of the upper right molar which was in a class II relationship.
  • (13) The most important stabilizing factor for the intramolecular proton transfer is the zinc ion, which lowers the pKa of zinc-bound water and electrostatically repels the proton.
  • (14) Both sexes were attracted to the odor of R-(-)-carvone and repelled by the odor of (+)-citronellol.
  • (15) The paint whooshed down through the freshwater, but as soon as it hit the saltwater it was repelled, spreading out laterally as if the pigment had hit an invisible horizon.
  • (16) In bacterial chemotaxis, transmembrane receptor proteins detect attractants and repellents in the medium and send intracellular signals that control motility.
  • (17) Iain Lobban, the director of GCHQ, the government's eavesdropping and encrypting agency, last week used his first public speech to call for an aggressive approach to cyber attacks, and warned of the dangers of adopting the sort of defensive strategy famously symbolised by France's Maginot line, which was meant to repel the Germans and failed.
  • (18) 7.53pm BST Pedant repellant Style guide: GEORGE: What is Holland?
  • (19) Current control measures, stressing the use of mosquito nets, insect repellent, and residual insecticides designed primarily for the less mobile population of rice-farming communities are less effective among more mobile people.
  • (20) Soldiers damaged three of the vessels before clashes in which the militants were eventually repelled.