a. Also 7 coersive. [irreg. f. COERCE + -IVE, by association with words in -ive formed on ppl. stems in s, as aspersive, aversive, conversive; Littré cites a F. coercif of 16th c., but coercitif is the recognized form in F.]
1. Of the nature of coercion; having the attribute of coercing.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VII. iii. § 1. Power … coercive over other ministers.
1647. May, Hist. Parl., III. i. 5. The King … had taken a more harsh and coercive way.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XI. 360. Twelve moons the foe the captive youth detains In painful dungeons, and coercive chains.
1836. D. W. Harvey, in Hansard, Parl. Deb., Ser. III. XXXII. 22. If … it was necessary to resort to coercive legislation, in order to make men religious?
1858. Froude, Hist. Eng., III. xiii. 92. A coercive police … who would have held down the people while they learnt their lesson by starvation.
1880. W. E. Forster, Let. Gladstone, 25 Oct. Should we accompany our coercive measure by any counter-bill?
1881. Mrs. P. O’Donoghue, Ladies on Horseback, II. iv. 59. [A rider] adopting coercive measures for his own safety.
2. Compelling assent or belief, convincing.
1650. Fuller, Pisgah, 369. I see no coercive argument, to enforce his belief to the contrary, can be taken out of Scripture.
1728. Pope’s Dunc., I. 104, note. His reasons for this Fury … are so strong and so coercive.
1755. B. Martin, Mag. Arts & Sci., 27. The next Phænomenon … is equally coercive, if Men would reflect or attend to it at all.
3. Having the power of physical pressure or compression. Cf. COERCION 3.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 21. Free from the coercive power of head-bands and other artificial violence.
1664. Evelyn, Pomona (1729), Gen. Advt. 94. It may seem incredible, that so thin a skin should be more coercive to a mutinous Liquor, than a Barrel.
1712. Blackmore, Creation, I. (ed. 2), 15 (J.).
| Where all things, on its Surface spread, are bound | |
| By their Coercive Vigour to the Ground! |
4. Coercive force: the hypothetical force in a magnetic substance which resists the separation of the two magnetic ‘fluids,’ and which resists their reunion when they have been separated.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIV. 288/1. A nonconducting energy, called the coercive power, exists in magnetic substances, by which the loss of magnetism when developed is prevented…. This is not the case with soft iron, which has not the coercive force.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6), I. xv. 407. Philosophers have been obliged to infer the existence of a special force…. They call it coercive force.
B. quasi-sb. A coercive means or measure.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Serm. (1678), 12. His tribunal takes cognisance of all causes, and hath a coercive for all.
1706. De Foe, Jure Div., Pref. 31. They … would push upon Coercives … and make equal Restraints upon their Fellow Christians.
1822. ‘P. Beauchamp’ (Geo. Grote), Anal. Infl. Nat. Relig. (1875), 23. No known apprehension will act as a sufficient coercive upon his mind.
