force
noun
uk
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force noun (PHYSICAL)
She slapped his face with unexpected force.
[ C or U ] specialized
the force of gravity
- attract
- attraction
- bar magnet
- barometric pressure
- binding energy
- centripetal
- electrolytic cell
- force multiplier
- friction
- hydro-
- insolation
- internal energy
- jetpack
- low-pressure
- magnetic storm
- osmotic pressure
- pressurization
- strain
- thrust
- torque
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
force noun (INFLUENCE)
C2 [ C or U ]
a force to be reckoned with
force of habit
- Ambition can sometimes be a force for good.
- Since the government limited their powers, the unions are no longer a force to be reckoned with.
- In Britain and the USA in the 1970s, the underground was a powerful subversive force.
- The club used to be a significant force in European football.
- It seems as though forces of destruction are increasingly at work throughout society.
- administrator
- authority
- bureaucrat
- chairman
- chairperson
- general
- Goliath
- guiding spirit
- headman
- hegemon
- marshal
- officer
- officialdom
- on high idiom
- overlord
- paymaster
- tsar
- vice president
- warden
- your lord and master idiom
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force noun (GROUP)
B2 [ C ]
the forces [ plural ]
- In their efforts to reduce crime the government expanded the police force.
- Security forces halted the demonstrators by blocking the road.
- The reduction in armed forces will be phased over the next ten years.
- Government troops swept aside the rebel forces.
- 60 percent of the work force voted for strike action.
- artillery
- battalion
- bomb disposal unit
- bomb squad
- cadre
- Coast Guardsman
- detachment
- expeditionary
- Guards
- Marines
- military policeman
- non-combatant
- rearguard
- shock troops
- squad
- squadron
- the Coast Guard
- the Marine Corps
- the military police
- troop
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force noun (IN OPERATION)
in/into force
New driving regulations are going to come into force this year.
- Many of these problems may simply fade into irrelevance when the new rules come into force.
- The new law comes into force at the end of the month.
- Speed restrictions are in force along this stretch of the railway line.
- The ban on handguns came into force last year.
- A curfew has been in force since the riots in August.
Idiom
force
verb [ T ]
uk
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force verb [T] (GIVE NO CHOICE)
B2
to make something happen or make someone do something difficult, unpleasant, or unusual, especially by threatening or not offering the possibility of choice:
[ + to infinitive ] I really have to force myself to be nice to him.
[ + to infinitive ] You can't force her to make a decision.
Hospitals are being forced to close departments because of lack of money.
biology, food & drink
specialized
If plants or vegetables are forced, they are made to grow faster by artificially controlling growing conditions such as the amount of heat and light:
forced strawberries
force a laugh/smile
force an/the issue
- The new tax would force companies to adopt energy-saving measures.
- Hospitals are being forced to close departments because of lack of money.
- The recession is forcing the company to rationalize.
- Doctors are being forced to work impossibly long hours.
- It's only a matter of time before he's forced to resign.
- a kick up the arse/backside idiom
- arm-twisting
- bludgeon
- bounce
- bounce sb into sth
- bulldoze
- forcible
- forcibly
- hold sb to ransom idiom
- impel
- impose
- railroad
- reduce
- reduce sb to sth
- screw
- sextortion
- shanghai
- slap
- squeeze
- trap
You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:
force verb [T] (USE PHYSICAL POWER)
- The crowd managed to force its way in by sheer weight of numbers.
- The thieves forced one of the shop windows open with a crowbar.
- Helmeted, baton-wielding police forced back the crowd.
- Pieces of stone can be split off by forcing wedges between the layers.
- The water pressure forces the piston into the chamber.
