Library / English Dictionary

EXHORT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Force or impel in an indicated direction

Example:

I urged him to finish his studies

Synonyms:

exhort; press; urge; urge on

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "exhort" is one way to...):

advise; counsel; rede (give advice to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "exhort"):

hurry; rush (urge to an unnatural speed)

bear on; push (press, drive, or impel (someone) to action or completion of an action)

advocate; preach (speak, plead, or argue in favor of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody to INFINITIVE

Sentence examples:

Sam cannot exhort Sue

They exhort him to write the letter

Derivation:

exhortation (a communication intended to urge or persuade the recipients to take some action)

exhortation (the act of exhorting; an earnest attempt at persuasion)

exhortatory (giving strong encouragement)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts

Example:

The crowd cheered the demonstrating strikers

Synonyms:

barrack; cheer; exhort; inspire; pep up; root on; urge; urge on

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "exhort" is one way to...):

encourage (inspire with confidence; give hope or courage to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "exhort"):

cheerlead (act as a cheerleader in a sports event)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They exhort him to write the letter

Derivation:

exhortation (a communication intended to urge or persuade the recipients to take some action)

exhortation (the act of exhorting; an earnest attempt at persuasion)

exhortatory (giving strong encouragement)

Credits

 Context examples: 

After a short silence, he told me, he did not know how I would take what he was going to say: that in the last general assembly, when the affair of the Yahoos was entered upon, the representatives had taken offence at his keeping a Yahoo (meaning myself) in his family, more like a Houyhnhnm than a brute animal; that he was known frequently to converse with me, as if he could receive some advantage or pleasure in my company; that such a practice was not agreeable to reason or nature, or a thing ever heard of before among them; the assembly did therefore exhort him either to employ me like the rest of my species, or command me to swim back to the place whence I came: that the first of these expedients was utterly rejected by all the Houyhnhnms who had ever seen me at his house or their own; for they alleged, that because I had some rudiments of reason, added to the natural pravity of those animals, it was to be feared I might be able to seduce them into the woody and mountainous parts of the country, and bring them in troops by night to destroy the Houyhnhnms’ cattle, as being naturally of the ravenous kind, and averse from labour.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)