From Middle English impellen, borrowed from Latin impellō.

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /ɪmˈpɛl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛl

impel (third-person singular simple present impels, present participle impelling, simple past and past participle impelled)

1. (transitive) To urge a person; to press on; to incite to action or motion via intrinsic motivation.

   Synonyms: actuate, motivate; see also Thesaurus:incite

   Antonym: (to compel or drive extrinsically) propel

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid,[…]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

   • 1976 August 28, Michael Shernoff, “No 'Rotting Closet'”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 9, page 5:

     I feel impelled to reply to Roger Henry's letter about my article on being denied an apartment. I truly resent any insinuation that I "slunk back into that rotting old closet."

   • 2016, Noam Chomsky, What Kind of Creatures Are We?, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page 61:

     Concern for the common good should impel us to find ways to overcome the devilish impact of these disastrous policies […]

2. (transitive) To drive forward; to propel an object, to provide an impetus for motion or action.

   Synonyms: drive, press, propel, push, shove, thrutch

   Antonyms: restrain, retard; see also Thesaurus:hinder

   The wind impelled the kayaks toward the shore.

• expel

• impellent
• impeller
• impetus
• impulse

• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “impel”, in The Century Dictionary[…], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “impel”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.