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urge

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: urgé, urgə, urĝe, and ürge

English

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Etymology

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From Latin urgeō (“urge”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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urge (plural urges)

  1. A strong desire; an itch to do something.
    Synonyms: hunger, yearning; see also Thesaurus:craving
    After seeing the advert for a soft drink, I had a sudden urge to buy a bottle.
    sexual urges
    repress your urges
    satisfy your urges

Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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urge (third-person singular simple present urges, present participle urging, simple past and past participle urged)

  1. (transitive) To press; to push; to drive; to impel; to force onward.
    Synonyms: animate, encourage, impel, stimulate
    • 1703, Statius, translated by Alexander Pope, edited by William Charles Macready, Thebais, London: Bradbury & Evans, translation of original in Classical Latin, published 1849, page 129:
      Lo hapless Tydeus, whose ill-fated hand / Had slain his brother, leaves his native land, / And seized with horror in the shades of night, / Through the thick deserts headlong urged his flight […]
  2. (transitive) To put mental pressure on; to ply with motives, arguments, persuasion, or importunity.
    Synonyms: instigate; see also Thesaurus:incite
    My boss urged me to reconsider my decision to leave the company, even offering a pay rise.
    • c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 345, column 2, lines 51–57:
      You do miſtake your buſines, my Brother neuer / Did vrge me in his Act : I did inquire it, / And haue my Learning from ſome true reports / That drew their ſwords with you, did he not rather / Diſcredit my authority with yours, / And make the warres alike againſt my ſtomacke, / Hauing alike your cauſe.
  3. (transitive) To provoke; to exasperate.
    Synonyms: agitate, strain, test, vex
  4. (transitive) To press hard upon; to follow closely.
    • a. 1744, Horace, “The Second Epistle of the Second Book of Horace”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, volume III, London: William Pickering, translation of A Renunciation of Lyric Poetry (in Classical Latin), published 1851:
      Man ? and for ever ? wretch ! what wouldst thou have ? / Heir urges heir, like wave impelling wave.
  5. (transitive) To present in an urgent manner; to insist upon.
    to urge an argument; to urge the necessity of a case
    • 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter X, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 222:
      To be urging her opinion against Sir Thomas's, was a proof of the extremity of the case, but such was her horror at the first suggestion, that she could actually look him in the face and say she hoped it might be settled otherwise; in vain however; […]
    • 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:
      As I understand it, that was a valid objection urged by Momus against the house which Minerva made, that she "had not made it movable, by which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided"; and it may still be urged, for our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them; and the bad neighborhood to be avoided is our own scurvy selves.
  6. (transitive, obsolete) To treat with forcible means; to take severe or violent measures with.
    to urge an ore with intense heat
  7. (transitive) To press onward or forward.
  8. (transitive) To be pressing in argument; to insist; to persist.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of urge
infinitive (to) urge
present tense past tense
1st-person singular urge urged
2nd-person singular urge, urgest† urged, urgedst†
3rd-person singular urges, urgeth† urged
plural urge
subjunctive urge urged
imperative urge —
participles urging urged

†Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

See also

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Anagrams

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French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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urge

  1. third-person singular present indicative of urger

Anagrams

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Italian

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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urge

  1. third-person singular present indicative of urgere

Latin

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Verb

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urgē

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of urgeō

Portuguese

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Verb

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urge

  1. inflection of urgir:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative

Spanish

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Verb

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urge

  1. inflection of urgir:
    1. third-person singular present indicative
    2. second-person singular imperative
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