How to Use impel in a Sentence

impel

verb
  • She felt impelled to give a speech after the performance.
  • His interest in the American Civil War impelled him to make repeated visits to Gettysburg.
  • In a flash, rain poured and wind whipped at once, blowing trash onto the field and impelling a rapid response from the grounds crew.
    Los Angeles Times, 17 July 2019
  • But with this film, as with all her others, Ramsay impels us to see.
    Leah Pickett, Chicago Reader, 12 Apr. 2018
  • Social conventions impel boys to move on, be strong, suck it up.
    Michael Reichert, The Atlantic, 26 Feb. 2018
  • These actions have been impelled by the need to conserve scarce protective gear for health care workers.
    Hal Bernton, Anchorage Daily News, 30 Mar. 2020
  • Anyone who knew about plants would know that there were roots beneath the surface impelling their way through the underlying soil.
    Linda McNamar, Orange County Register, 21 May 2017
  • At least some rental contracts give tenants the power to impel their landlord to install window guards against theft.
    Cecilia D'anastasio, Wired, 24 Jan. 2020
  • The purpose of this verbal sleight of hand is to humanize trees, and thereby impel the reader to extend greater care to them.
    Robert Moor, The New Yorker, 10 June 2021
  • This works as a rhetorical move: No one wants to be stuck, and dread of this fate can impel a person to action.
    Virginia Heffernan, Wired, 11 July 2022
  • Is intervention likely to impel more violence in the long term?
    Daniel Bessner, The New Republic, 4 Sep. 2019
  • As a sample of one, Davis couldn’t clinch the case, of course, but being a woman impelled her to prove herself on the trail.
    Paul Bisceglio, The Atlantic, 13 May 2018
  • Cars driving by impelled the police to end the standoff violently.
    Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post, 16 Apr. 2018
  • But the announcement of the plan to potentially put down the bear impelled two Banff residents to start a protest petition.
    Fox News, 14 July 2017
  • Of course, the high-profile role of public officials should impel them to be sticklers about following their own rules.
    Rich Lowry, National Review, 3 Aug. 2021
  • This contributes to the lawlessness and violence that impel people to flee the region and go to the United States.
    The Economist, 10 May 2018
  • And that impatience, coupled with the impetus of tournament cash, impels them to catch more fish, faster.
    Frank Sargeant, AL.com, 4 Nov. 2017
  • The failure to make progress on the issue is what impelled Democrats in the Senate to refuse to pass a spending bill last month, leading to the temporary shutdown.
    Nash Jenkins, Time, 6 Feb. 2018
  • The need to evolve from a Clamor into a Teo impelled a series of self-consciously virile escapades.
    Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 26 June 2023
  • This is noteworthy since politicians from states without income taxes complain that Quill could impel them to pass one to raise revenue.
    The Editorial Board, WSJ, 15 Mar. 2018
  • David Sedaris’ essays impel me to read aloud and laugh communally – at the beach, on a road trip, and sometimes at the dinner table.
    Staff, The Christian Science Monitor, 25 June 2021
  • Symptoms include severe mood swings and deep despondency as well as impulses that can impel a mother to harm herself or her child.
    Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2021
  • Some Republicans have been remarkably candid about the political forces impelling them to produce tax cuts for the wealthy.
    Larry Bartels, Washington Post, 20 Dec. 2017
  • Perhaps Sanneh’s next article can be on why humans feel impelled to impose order on chaos.
    Rachel Aviv, The New Yorker, 23 Jan. 2017
  • Last is the motives, values, and preferences inventory, which seeks to capture what impels you and your purpose.
    Trey Williams, Fortune, 12 Sep. 2023
  • What impels her forward is the voice: free, pellucid, almost always first-person, interested not in the long view but in the here and now.
    Abhrajyoti Chakraborty, The New Republic, 5 Aug. 2019
  • From time to time, students of history wonder how the great tyrannies of the past could have impelled so many ostensibly rational people to treat others with such brazen contempt.
    Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 10 Oct. 2023
  • While a trade war with the U.S. would be disastrous for China, national pride might impel Xi to fight on.
    Bloomberg.com, 12 Apr. 2018
  • Coping with scarcity in space might impel settlers to reconsider some of the basic tentpoles of Western society.
    Clive Thompson, The New Republic, 3 Dec. 2020
  • But even that predicament didn’t impel Tehran to abandon its essential nuclear assets.
    Ray Takeyh, WSJ, 10 Dec. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'impel.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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