persuade
Pronunciation
  • (British) IPA: /pəˈsweɪd/
  • (America) IPA: /pɚˈsweɪd/
Verb

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.
Synonyms Translations


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