• (British) IPA: /pəˈsweɪd/
• (America) IPA: /pɚˈsweɪd/

persuade (persuades, present participle persuading; past and past participle persuaded)

1. (transitive) To successfully convince (someone) to agree to, accept, or do something, usually through reasoning and verbal influence. [from 15th c.]

   That salesman was able to persuade me into buying this bottle of lotion.

   • c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     We will persuade him, be it possible.

   • 1909, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], chapter I, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen, OCLC 12026604 ↗; republished New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1919, OCLC 491297620 ↗:

     The boy became volubly friendly and bubbling over with unexpected humour and high spirits. He tried to persuade Cicely to stay away from the ball-room for a fourth dance. Nobody would miss them, he explained.

   Antonyms: deter, dissuade
2. (transitive, obsolete) To convince of by argument, or by reasons offered or suggested from reflection, etc.; to cause to believe (something). [15th–18th c.]
   • 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, Epistle to the Hebrews vi. 9:

     Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you.

3. (transitive, now, rare, regional) To urge, plead; to try to convince (someone to do something). [from 16th c.]
   • 1611, Bible, Authorized (King James) Version, 2 Books of Kings xviii. 32:

     Hearken not unto Hezekiah, when he persuadeth you.

   • 1791, Elizabeth Inchbald, A Simple Story, Oxford 2009, p. 119:

     She did not go into the coffee-room, though repeatedly persuaded by Miss Woodley, but waited at the door till her carriage drew up.

   • 1834, Davy Crockett, A Narrative of the Life of ↗, Nebraska 1987, p. 34:

     He persuaded me to go home, but I refused.

• convince

• French: persuader
• German: überreden, gewinnen, verführen, bestechen
• Italian: persuadere
• Portuguese: persuadir
• Russian: убежда́ть
• Spanish: persuadir