SG Heritage Dictionary

Force [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Strength; active power; vigor; might; energy that may be exerted; that physical property in a body which may produce action or motion in another body, or may counteract such motion. By the force of the muscles we raise a weight, or resist an assault.

2. Momentum; the quantity of power produced by motion or the action of one body on another; as the force of a cannon ball.

3. That which causes an operation or moral effect; strength; energy; as the force of the mind, will or understanding.

4. Violence; power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power. Let conquerors consider that force alone can keep what force as obtained.

5. Strength; moral power to convince the mind. There is great force in an argument.

6. Virtue; efficacy. No presumption or hypothesis can be of force enough to overthrow constant experience.

7. Validity; power to bind or hold. If the conditions of a covenant are not fulfilled, the contract is of no force A testament is of force after the testator is dead. Hebrews 9:17 .

8. Strength or power for war; armament; troops; an army or navy; as a military or naval force:sometimes in the plural; as military forces.

9. Destiny; necessity; compulsion; any extraneous power to which men are subject; as the force of fate or of divine decrees.

10. Internal power; as the force of habit.

11. In law, any unlawful violence to person or property. This is simple, when no other crime attends it, as the entering into another's possession, without committing any other unlawful act. It is compound, when some other violence or unlawful act is committed. The law also implies force as when a person enters a house or inclosure lawfully, but afterwards does an unlawful act. In this case, the law supposes the first entrance to be for that purpose, and therefore by force

12. Physical force is the force of material bodies.

13. Moral force is the power of acting on the reason in judging and determining.

14. Mechanical force is the power that belongs to bodies at rest or in motion. The pressure or tension of bodies at rest is called a mechanical force and so is the power of a body in motion. There is also the force of gravity or attraction, centrifugal and centripetal forces, expansive force etc.

Force [Verb intransitive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. To lay stress on. obsolete

2. To strive. obsolete

3. To use violence.

Force [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. To compel; to constrain to do or to forbear, by the exertion of a power not resistible. Men are forced to submit to conquerors. Masters force their slaves to labor.

2. To overpower by strength.

3. I should have forced thee soon with other arms.

4. To impel; to press; to drive; to draw or push by main strength; a sense of very extensive use; as, to force along a wagon or a ship; to force away a man's arms; water forces its way through a narrow channel; a man may be forced out of his possessions.

5. To enforce; to urge; to press.

6. Forcing my strength, and gathering to the shore.

7. To compel by strength of evidence; as, to force conviction on the mind; to force one to acknowledge the truth of a proposition.

8. To storm; to assault and take by violence; as, to force a town or fort.

9. To ravish; to violate by force as a female.

10. To overstrain; to distort; as a forced conceit.

11. To cause to produce ripe fruit prematurely, as a tree; or to cause to ripen prematurely, as fruit.

12. To man; to strengthen by soldiers; to garrison. obsolete

13. To force from, to wrest from; to extort.

14. To force out, to drive out; to compel to issue out or to leave; also, to extort.

15. To force wine, is to fine it by a short process, or in a short time.

16. To force plants, is to urge the growth of plants by artificial heat.

17. To force meat, is to stuff it.

Force [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A waterfall; a cascade.

2. Strength or energy of body or mind; active power; vigor; might; often, an unusual degree of strength or energy; capacity of exercising an influence or producing an effect; especially, power to persuade, or convince, or impose obligation; pertinency; validity; special signification; as, the force of an appeal, an argument, a contract, or a term.

3. Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power; violence; coercion.

4. Strength or power for war; hence, a body of land or naval combatants, with their appurtenances, ready for action; -- an armament; troops; warlike array; -- often in the plural; hence, a body of men prepared for action in other ways; as, the laboring force of a plantation.

5. Strength or power exercised without law, or contrary to law, upon persons or things; violence.

6. Validity; efficacy.

7. Any action between two bodies which changes, or tends to change, their relative condition as to rest or motion; or, more generally, which changes, or tends to change, any physical relation between them, whether mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic, or of any other kind; as, the force of gravity; cohesive force; centrifugal force.

8. To constrain to do or to forbear, by the exertion of a power not resistible; to compel by physical, moral, or intellectual means; to coerce; as, masters force slaves to labor.

9. To compel, as by strength of evidence; as, to force conviction on the mind.

10. To do violence to; to overpower, or to compel by violence to one;s will; especially, to ravish; to violate; to commit rape upon.

11. To obtain or win by strength; to take by violence or struggle; specifically, to capture by assault; to storm, as a fortress.

12. To impel, drive, wrest, extort, get, etc., by main strength or violence; -- with a following adverb, as along, away, from, into, through, out, etc.

13. To put in force; to cause to be executed; to make binding; to enforce.

14. To exert to the utmost; to urge; hence, to strain; to urge to excessive, unnatural, or untimely action; to produce by unnatural effort; as, to force a consient or metaphor; to force a laugh; to force fruits.

15. To compel (an adversary or partner) to trump a trick by leading a suit of which he has none.

16. To provide with forces; to reenforce; to strengthen by soldiers; to man; to garrison.

17. To allow the force of; to value; to care for.

Force [Verb intransitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. To use violence; to make violent effort; to strive; to endeavor.

2. To make a difficult matter of anything; to labor; to hesitate; hence, to force of, to make much account of; to regard.

3. To be of force, importance, or weight; to matter.

Force [Verb transitive] Webster's Dictionary 1913

To stuff; to lard; to farce.

Force pump Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A pump having a solid piston, or plunger, for drawing and forcing a liquid, as water, through the valves; in distinction from a pump having a bucket, or valved piston.

2. A pump adapted for delivering water at a considerable height above the pump, or under a considerable pressure; in distinction from one which lifts the water only to the top of the pump or delivers it through a spout. See Illust. of Plunger pump, under Plunger.

Forced [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Affected; overstrained; unnatural; as a forced style.

Forced [Participle passive] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Compelled; impelled; driven by violence; urged; stormed; ravished.

Forced [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Done or produced with force or great labor, or by extraordinary exertion; hurried; strained; produced by unnatural effort or pressure; as, a forced style; a forced laugh.

Forced [Imperfect tense and past participle] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Force

Forcedly [Adverb] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Violently; constrainedly; unnaturally. [Little used.]

Forcedness [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

The state of being forced; distortion.

Forceful [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Impelled by violence; driven with force; acting with power.

2. Against the steed he threw his forceful spear.

3. Violent; impetuous.

Forceful [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Full of or processing force; exerting force; mighty.

Forcefully [Adverb] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Violently; impetuously.

Forceless [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1828

Having little or not force; feeble; impotent.

Forceless [Adjective] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Having little or no force; feeble.

Forcellini Encyclopedia Britannica

FORCELLINI, Egidio (1688—1768), an Italian philologist, was born at Fener in the district of Treviso, and belonged to a very poor family. He went to the seminary at Padua in 1704, studied under Facciolati, and in due course attained to the priesthood. From 1724 to 1731 he held the office of rector of the seminary at Ceneda, and from 1731 to 1765 that of father confessor in the seminary of Padua. The remaining years of his life were mainly spent in his native village. He died at Padua in 1768 before the completion of the great work by which his name is preserved. This is a vast Latin Lexicon, usually referred to as Facciolati’s, which has formed the basis of all similar works that have since been published. He was engaged with his Herculean task for nearly 35 years, and the transcription of the manuscript by Luigi Violato occupied eight years more. It was ultimately published at the expense of Cardinal Priole, under the title of Totius Latinitatis Lexicon, consilio et cura Jacobi Facciolati, opera et studiis Aegidü Forcellini, Seminarii Patavini Alumni, lucubratum, 4 vols., Padua, 1771.

9th ed. Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 393
[189 words — estimated reading time: 2 minutes]

Forcemeat [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

A kind of stuffing in cookery.

Forcemeat [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

Meat chopped fine and highly seasoned, either served up alone, or used as a stuffing.

Forcement [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

The act of forcing; compulsion.

Forceps [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. Literally, a pair of pinchers or tongs.

2. In surgery, an instrument for extracting any thing from a wound, and for like purposes.

3. A pair of scissors for cutting off or dividing the fleshy membranous parts of the body.

Forceps [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. A pair of pinchers, or tongs; an instrument for grasping, holding firmly, or exerting traction upon, bodies which it would be inconvenient or impracticable to seize with the fingers, especially one for delicate operations, as those of watchmakers, surgeons, accoucheurs, dentists, etc.

2. The caudal forceps-shaped appendage of earwigs and some other insects. See Earwig.

Forcer [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. He or that which forces, drives or constrains.

2. The embolus of a pump; the instrument by which water is driven up a pump.

Forcer [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. One who, or that which, forces or drives.

2. The solid piston of a force pump; the instrument by which water is forced in a pump.

3. A small hand pump for sinking pits, draining cellars, etc.

King James Bible KJV Bible

Berean Standard Bible BSB Bible

82 KJV and 76 BSB verses contain “force” — showing the first 20. Show all 147 verses (searchable)

Genesis 14:15

And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

During the night, Abram divided his forces and routed Chedorlaomer’s army, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus.

Genesis 31:31

And Jacob answered and said to Laban, Because I was afraid: for I said, Peradventure thou wouldest take by force thy daughters from me.

“I was afraid,” Jacob answered, “for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.

Genesis 34:2

And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

Exodus 1:11

Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.

Exodus 32:20

And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground it to powder, and scattered the powder over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.

Leviticus 25:39

And if thy brother that dwelleth by thee be waxen poor, and be sold unto thee; thou shalt not compel him to serve as a bondservant:

If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.

Deuteronomy 20:11

And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be, that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.

If they accept your offer of peace and open their gates, all the people there will become forced laborers to serve you.

Deuteronomy 22:25

But if a man find a betrothed damsel in the field, and the man force her, and lie with her: then the man only that lay with her shall die:

But if the man encounters a betrothed woman in the open country, and he overpowers her and lies with her, only the man who has done this must die.

Deuteronomy 34:7

And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.

Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished.

Joshua 8:13

And when they had set the people, even all the host that was on the north of the city, and their liers in wait on the west of the city, Joshua went that night into the midst of the valley.

So the forces were stationed with the main camp to the north of the city and the rear guard to the west of the city. And that night Joshua went into the valley.

Joshua 8:22

And the other issued out of the city against them; so they were in the midst of Israel, some on this side, and some on that side: and they smote them, so that they let none of them remain or escape.

Meanwhile, those in the ambush came out of the city against them, and the men of Ai were trapped between the Israelite forces on both sides. So Israel struck them down until no survivor or fugitive remained.

Joshua 10:5

Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.

So the five kings of the Amorites—the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, and Eglon—joined forces and advanced with all their armies. They camped before Gibeon and made war against it.

Joshua 10:6

And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.

Then the men of Gibeon sent word to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal: “Do not abandon your servants. Come quickly and save us! Help us, because all the kings of the Amorites from the hill country have joined forces against us.”

Joshua 11:5

And when all these kings were met together, they came and pitched together at the waters of Merom, to fight against Israel.

All these kings joined forces and encamped at the waters of Merom to fight against Israel.

Joshua 16:10

And they drave not out the Canaanites that dwelt in Gezer: but the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites unto this day, and serve under tribute.

But they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. So the Canaanites dwell among the Ephraimites to this day, but they are forced laborers.

Joshua 17:13

Yet it came to pass, when the children of Israel were waxen strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute; but did not utterly drive them out.

However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they put the Canaanites to forced labor; but they failed to drive them out completely.

Judges 1:28

And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out.

When Israel became stronger, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor, but they never drove them out completely.

Judges 1:30

Neither did Zebulun drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, nor the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites dwelt among them, and became tributaries.

Zebulun failed to drive out the inhabitants of Kitron and Nahalol; so the Canaanites lived among them and served as forced laborers.

Judges 1:33

Neither did Naphtali drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, nor the inhabitants of Beth-anath; but he dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became tributaries unto them.

Naphtali failed to drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath. So the Naphtalites also lived among the Canaanite inhabitants of the land, but the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath served them as forced laborers.

Judges 1:34

And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley:

The Amorites forced the Danites into the hill country and did not allow them to come down into the plain.