Word.ws English Dictionary

compel testimony

compel testimony verb: to officially require that a witness appear and testify before a court of law or other public authority, under threat of legally enforceable penalties for failure to do so.

Verb

compel testimony (third-person singular simple present compels testimony, present participle compelling testimony, simple past and past participle compelled testimony)

  1. To officially require that a witness appear and testify before a court of law or other public authority, under threat of legally enforceable penalties for failure to do so.
    • President Roosevelt approved an amendment to the Air Commerce Act of 1926, giving the Aeronautics Branch of the Department of Commerce power to hold public hearings, subpoena witnesses, compel testimony under oath.1934 July 2, “Aeronautics: Causes of Crashes”, in Time, retrieved 16 Apr 2014
    • With the power to subpoena witnesses, to compel testimony under threat of imprisonment, and to recommend criminal charges for any illegal drug activities he uncovers, Justice Dubin has been hailed here as the man who may be able to shake Canada's sporting community out of the widespread drug-taking...1989 January 13, John F. Burns, “Drugs: Assessing the Johnson Debacle”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 Apr 2014

Forms of compel testimony

third-person singular presentcompels testimony
present participlecompelling testimony
past participlecompelled testimony
pastcompelled testimony

Questions about compel testimony

What does compel testimony mean?
Compel testimony means to officially require that a witness appear and testify before a court of law or other public authority, under threat of legally enforceable penalties for failure to do so.
What part of speech is compel testimony?
Compel testimony is a verb.
What is the past tense of compel testimony?
The past tense of compel testimony is compelled testimony.

Words near compel testimony in the dictionary

  1. compeer
  2. compeered
  3. compeering
  4. compeers
  5. compel
  6. compel testimony
  7. compellable
  8. compellably
  9. compellance
  10. compellation
  11. compellations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compel testimony (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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