From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcompulsioncom‧pul‧sion /kəmˈpʌlʃən/ noun 1 [countable]WANT a strong and unreasonable desire to do something → compel The desire to laugh became a compulsion.compulsion to do something Leith felt an overwhelming compulsion to tell him the truth. the compulsion to smoke or eat too much2 [singular, uncountable]FORCE somebody TO DO something the act of forcing or influencing someone to do something they do not want to do → compelunder (no) compulsion to do something Owners are under no compulsion to sell their land. The use of compulsion in psychiatric care cannot be justified.
Examples from the Corpus
compulsion• Compulsion is not the answer to get kids to perform better in school.• But she also felt a compulsion to talk to Louise.• The patient had a compulsion that caused him to wash his hands 20 or 30 times a day.• The bad was the pervasive and inevitable corruption of morals and manners that accompanied such a compulsion for the luxurious.• It was a compulsion I'd starved for, and even if I never went hungry again I would feel that compulsion for ever.• Here, ... we are dealing with a compulsion of students to declare a belief.• People may develop compulsions such as excessive cleaning or counting.• There is no compulsion on the farmer to provide education at all.• No compulsion would have been necessary.• He felt a sudden compulsion to laugh out loud.• The compulsion to return may be strong, but the obstacles are huge.compulsion to do something• If anything, Letterman thinks, these women have a compulsion to reach a higher plane of conversation that strains credulity.• He was a voracious reader with a compulsion to finish everything he started.• A compulsion to ride in glass elevators in Marriott hotels.• But some kind of late-blooming compulsion to be honest is making it harder for me to stay under cover.• Burnout often results from a neurotic compulsion to give it all away.• When he was around I felt no compulsion to bind myself to people in this terrible, demanding way.• An alternative view, however, suggests that enlightened self-interest is more likely than regulatory compulsion to bring about truly sustainable activities.• I had felt the lure of the unexplored, the compulsion to go where others had not been.Origin compulsion (1300-1400) Old French Late Latin compulsio, from Latin compellere; → COMPEL 