From Middle English propellen, from Latin propellō, from pro- ("forward") and pellō ("I push, I move").

• (British, America, Canada) IPA: /pɹəˈpɛl/
• (Australia) IPA: /pɹəˈpel/

propel (third-person singular simple present propels, present participle propelling, simple past and past participle propelled)

1. (transitive) To provide an impetus for motion or physical action; to cause to move in a certain direction; to drive forward.
   • 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC ↗; republished as chapter V, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC ↗:

     When it had advanced from the wood, it hopped much after the fashion of a kangaroo, using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it stood erect, it sat upon its tail.

2. (transitive, figurative) To provide an impetus for nonphysical change; to cause to arrive to a certain situation or result.

• (either) drive, push

• (antonym(s) of “either”): stay, halt, stop
• (antonym(s) of “cause to move”): rest

• propulsion

• French: propulser, catapulter
• German: antreiben
• Italian: propellere
• Portuguese: propulsar
• Russian: дви́гать
• Spanish: propulsar

• French: catapulter
• Italian: catapultare, spingere
• Spanish: , propulsar

  Spanish: impulsar