compesce

English

Etymology

Latin compēscō (“I restrain”).

Verb

compesce (third-person singular simple present compesces, present participle compescing, simple past and past participle compesced)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To hold in check; to restrain.
   • 1858, Thomas Carlyle, History of Friedrich II of Prussia:

     And has coerced and compesced them (all that did not contrive to desert) into soldierly obedience[.]

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “compesce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Latin

Verb

compesce

1. second-person singular present active imperative of compescō