From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishforce the issueforce the issueFORCE somebody TO DO somethingto do something that makes it necessary for someone to make decisions or take action, instead of waiting to see what happens Polly decided to force the issue by demanding an explanation. → force
Examples from the Corpus
force the issue• What you are asking your tenants to do is reasonable, but you may decide not to force the issue.• And he did; he forced the issue.• But I was too tired now to force the issue.• He never tried to force the issue.• In early spring, 1861, the new Confederate government decided to force the issue.• At a minimum, they can force the issue back on to the political agenda and make Republicans publicly address the subject again.• Time was getting tight on both projects, so I had to force the issue with him.• If you attempt to force the issue, you are told that this was another one of your dumb ideas. 