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Demand vs Compel - What's the difference?

demand | compel | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between demand and compel

is that demand is to request forcefully while compel is to drive together, round up.

As a noun demand

is the desire to purchase goods and services.

demand

English

Alternative forms

* demaund, demaunde (obsolete)

Noun

(en noun)
  • The desire to purchase goods and services.
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Michael Sivak
  • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Will AC Put a Chill on the Global Energy Supply? , passage=Nevertheless, it is clear that the global energy demand' for air-conditioning will grow substantially as nations become more affluent, with the consequences of climate change potentially accelerating the ' demand .}}
  • (economics) The amount of a good or service that consumers are willing to buy at a particular price.
  • A need.
  • A claim for something.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8 , passage=The humor of my proposition appealed more strongly to Miss Trevor than I had looked for, and from that time forward she became her old self again;
  • A requirement.
  • An urgent request.
  • An order.
  • (electricity supply) A measure of the maximum power load of a utility's customer over a short period of time; the power load integrated over a specified time interval.
  • Usage notes

    One can also make demands on someone. * See for uses and meaning of demand collocated with these words.

    Synonyms

    * (a requirement) imposition

    Derived terms

    * demand-driven * in demand * on demand

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To request forcefully.
  • To claim a right to something.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-08, volume=407, issue=8839, page=55, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Obama goes troll-hunting , passage=According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle.}}
  • To ask forcefully for information.
  • To require of someone.
  • (legal) To issue a summons to court.
  • Synonyms

    * * (ask strongly)

    compel

    English

    Verb

  • (transitive, archaic, literally) To drive together, round up (rfex)
  • To overpower; to subdue.
  • * 1917 , , King Coal , ch. 16,
  • She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.
  • To force, constrain or coerce.
  • Logic compels''' the wise, while fools feel '''compelled by emotions.
  • * 1600 , , Julius Caesar , act 5, sc. 1,
  • Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.
  • * Hallam
  • Wolsey compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
  • To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance.
  • * 1912 , , Sky Island , ch. 14,
  • The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.
  • (obsolete) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
  • * Dryden
  • Easy sleep their weary limbs compelled .
  • * Tennyson
  • I compel all creatures to my will.
  • (obsolete) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
  • * Dryden
  • in one troop compelled
  • (obsolete) To call forth; to summon.
  • * Spenser
  • She had this knight from far compelled .
    (Chapman)

    Derived terms

    * compellable * compeller * compelling * compellation * compel testimony

    References

    * * * Random House Webster’s Unabridged Electronic Dictionary , 1987-1996. English control verbs English transitive verbs