Dictionary

urge

Etymology

From Latin urgeō.

Pronunciation

(RP) enPR: ûrj, IPA: /ɜːd͡ʒ/
(America) enPR: ûrj, IPA: /ɝd͡ʒ/

Noun

urge (plural urges)

A strong desire; an itch to do something.
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

Translations

French: pulsion, envie
German: Drang
Italian: pulsione
Portuguese: comichão, ânsia
Russian: побужде́ние
Spanish: impulso

Verb

urge (urges, present participle urging; simple past and past participle urged)

(transitive) To press; to push; to drive; to impel; to force onward.
(transitive) To put mental pressure on; to ply with motives, arguments, persuasion, or importunity.
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.
(transitive) To provoke; to exasperate.
(transitive) To press hard upon; to follow closely.
(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 8, 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.
(transitive, obsolete) To treat with forcible means; to take severe or violent measures with.
to urge an ore with intense heat
(transitive) To press onward or forward.
(transitive) To be pressing in argument; to insist; to persist.

Conjugation

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	urged

subjunctive	urge	urged

imperative	urge	—

participles	urging	urged