Force \Force\, n. [F. force, LL. forcia, fortia, fr. L. fortis
strong. See Fort, n.]
1. Capacity of exercising an influence or producing an
effect; strength or energy of body or mind; active power;
vigor; might; often, an unusual degree of strength or
energy; especially, power to persuade, or convince, or
impose obligation; pertinency; validity; special
signification; as, the force of an appeal, an argument, a
contract, or a term.
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He was, in the full force of the words, a good man.
--Macaulay.
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2. Power exerted against will or consent; compulsory power;
violence; coercion; as, by force of arms; to take by
force.
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Which now they hold by force, and not by right.
--Shak.
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3. Strength or power for war; hence, a body of land or naval
combatants, with their appurtenances, ready for action; --
an armament; troops; warlike array; -- often in the
plural; hence, a body of men prepared for action in other
ways; as, the laboring force of a plantation; the armed
forces.
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Is Lucius general of the forces? --Shak.
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4. (Law)
(a) Strength or power exercised without law, or contrary
to law, upon persons or things; violence.
(b) Validity; efficacy. --Burrill.
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5. (Physics) Any action between two bodies which changes, or
tends to change, their relative condition as to rest or
motion; or, more generally, which changes, or tends to
change, any physical relation between them, whether
mechanical, thermal, chemical, electrical, magnetic, or of
any other kind; as, the force of gravity; cohesive force;
centrifugal force.
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Animal force (Physiol.), muscular force or energy.
Catabiotic force [Gr. ? down (intens.) + ? life.] (Biol.),
the influence exerted by living structures on adjoining
cells, by which the latter are developed in harmony with
the primary structures.
Centrifugal force, Centripetal force, Coercive force,
etc. See under Centrifugal, Centripetal, etc.
Composition of forces, Correlation of forces, etc. See
under Composition, Correlation, etc.
Force and arms [trans. of L. vi et armis] (Law), an
expression in old indictments, signifying violence.
In force, or Of force, of unimpaired efficacy; valid; of
full virtue; not suspended or reversed. "A testament is of
force after men are dead." --Heb. ix. 17.
Metabolic force (Physiol.), the influence which causes and
controls the metabolism of the body.
No force, no matter of urgency or consequence; no account;
hence, to do no force, to make no account of; not to heed.
[Obs.] --Chaucer.
Of force, of necessity; unavoidably; imperatively. "Good
reasons must, of force, give place to better." --Shak.
Plastic force (Physiol.), the force which presumably acts
in the growth and repair of the tissues.
Vital force (Physiol.), that force or power which is
inherent in organization; that form of energy which is the
cause of the vital phenomena of the body, as distinguished
from the physical forces generally known.
Syn: Strength; vigor; might; energy; stress; vehemence;
violence; compulsion; coaction; constraint; coercion.
Usage: Force, Strength. Strength looks rather to power as
an inward capability or energy. Thus we speak of the
strength of timber, bodily strength, mental strength,
strength of emotion, etc. Force, on the other hand,
looks more to the outward; as, the force of
gravitation, force of circumstances, force of habit,
etc. We do, indeed, speak of strength of will and
force of will; but even here the former may lean
toward the internal tenacity of purpose, and the
latter toward the outward expression of it in action.
But, though the two words do in a few cases touch thus
closely on each other, there is, on the whole, a
marked distinction in our use of force and strength.
"Force is the name given, in mechanical science, to
whatever produces, or can produce, motion." --Nichol.
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Thy tears are of no force to mollify
This flinty man. --Heywood.
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More huge in strength than wise in works he was.
--Spenser.
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Adam and first matron Eve
Had ended now their orisons, and found
Strength added from above, new hope to spring
Out of despair. --Milton.
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Centrifugal \Cen*trif"u*gal\, a. [L. centrum center + fugere to
flee.]
1. Tending, or causing, to recede from the center.
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2. (Bot.)
(a) Expanding first at the summit, and later at the base,
as a flower cluster.
(b) Having the radicle turned toward the sides of the
fruit, as some embryos.
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Centrifugal force (Mech.), a force whose direction is from
a center.
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Note: When a body moves in a circle with uniform velocity, a
force must act on the body to keep it in the circle
without change of velocity. The direction of this force
is towards the center of the circle. If this force is
applied by means of a string to the body, the string
will be in a state of tension. To a person holding the
other end of the string, this tension will appear to be
directed toward the body as if the body had a tendency
to move away from the center of the circle which it is
describing. Hence this latter force is often called
centrifugal force. The force which really acts on the
body being directed towards the center of the circle is
called centripetal force, and in some popular treatises
the centripetal and centrifugal forces are described as
opposing and balancing each other. But they are merely
the different aspects of the same stress. --Clerk
Maxwell.
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Centrifugal impression (Physiol.), an impression (motor)
sent from a nerve center outwards to a muscle or muscles
by which motion is produced.
Centrifugal machine, A machine for expelling water or other
fluids from moist substances, or for separating liquids of
different densities by centrifugal action; a whirling
table.
Centrifugal pump, a machine in which water or other fluid
is lifted and discharged through a pipe by the energy
imparted by a wheel or blades revolving in a fixed case.
Some of the largest and most powerful pumps are of this
kind.
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