COMPULSORY • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Compulsory

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/kəmpˈəlsəri/ Listen

adjective

Compulsory adj.

Having the power of compulsion; constraining.

Obligatory; enjoined by authority; necessary; due to compulsion. "This contribution threatening to fall infinitely short of their hopes, they soon made it compulsory."

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Etymology of 'Compulsory'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Compulsory" Quotes from Famous Books

... the change of industrial conditions which has massed the poor in great cities, the spread of knowledge by compulsory education, cheap newspapers, libraries, and a thousand other vehicles of knowledge, the possession and growing appreciation of political power, have made poverty more self-conscious and the poor more discontented. By striving to educate, ...

— Problems of Poverty • John A. Hobson

... being exhausted by their efforts to keep him moving. His weight was now almost that of a dead body; and it was only at intervals that he made any struggles to move himself by the aid of his paralysed limbs. Two other individuals were got to relieve them; and the compulsory motions were continued. The lethargy had not altogether mastered the sentient powers; and, the operation having been stopped that I might examine his condition, he lifted his head slowly, looked round him with a vacant stare, ...

— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 17 • Alexander Leighton

... ribbons; cameos leant against her bosom as if they were upon a mantelpiece. Mark never overcame his dislike of kissing Aunt Helen, for it gave him a sensation every time that a bit of her might stick to his lips. He lacked that solemn sense of relationship with which most children are imbued, and the compulsory intimacy offended him, particularly when his aunt referred to little boys generically as if they were beetles or mice. Her inability to appreciate that he was Mark outraged his young sense of personality which was further dishonoured by the manner in which she spoke of herself as Aunt Helen, ...

— The Altar Steps • Compton MacKenzie

... years ago—and in so doing went far to pave the way for the modern frightful increase of cancer, Bright's disease, etc., as well as for "scientific" horrors like anti-toxin, tuberculin—not to mention compulsory eugenics! ...

— The Healthy Life, Vol. V, Nos. 24-28 - The Independent Health Magazine • Various

... and—what was pretty much the same thing—the confidences of the inhabitants. The results of this unhallowed intimacy were many subpoenas; and, indeed, when the "Amity Claim" came to trial, all of Sandy Bar that was not in compulsory attendance at the county seat came there from curiosity. The gulches and ditches for miles around were deserted. I do not propose to describe that already famous trial. Enough that, in the language of the plaintiff's ...

— Mrs. Skaggs's Husbands and Other Stories • Bret Harte

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