Wordnet 3.0
ADJECTIVE (1)
1.
serving or intended to coerce;
- Example: "authority is directional instead of coercive"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Coercive \Co*er"cive\, a.
Serving or intended to coerce; having power to constrain. --
Co*er"cive*ly, adv. -- Co*er"cive*ness, n.
[1913 Webster]
Coercive power can only influence us to outward
practice. --Bp.
Warburton.
[1913 Webster]
Coercive force or Coercitive force (Magnetism), the power
or force which in iron or steel produces a slowness or
difficulty in imparting magnetism to it, and also
interposes an obstacle to the return of a bar to its
natural state when active magnetism has ceased. It plainly
depends on the molecular constitution of the metal.
--Nichol.
[1913 Webster]
The power of resisting magnetization or
demagnization is sometimes called coercive force.
--S. Thompson.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
coercive
adj 1: serving or intended to coerce; "authority is directional
instead of coercive"