urge
pronunciation
How to pronounce urge in British English:
UK [ɜːdʒ]
How to pronounce urge in American English:
US [ɜːrdʒ]
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- Noun:
- an instinctive motive
- a strong restless desire
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- Verb:
- force or impel in an indicated direction
- push for something
- urge on or encourage especially by shouts
Word Origin
- urge
- urge: [16] Urge was borrowed from Latin urgēre ‘push, press, compel’. Its present participle gave English urgent [15], which thus means etymologically ‘pressing’.=> urgent
- urge (v.)
- 1550s, from Latin urgere "to press hard, push forward, force, drive, compel, stimulate," from PIE root *wreg- "to push, shove, drive" (cognates: Lithuanian verziu "tie, fasten, squeeze," vargas "need, distress," vergas "slave;" Old Church Slavonic vragu "enemy;" Gothic wrikan "persecute," Old English wrecan "drive, hunt, pursue"). Related: Urged; urging.
- urge (n.)
- 1610s, "act of urging," from urge (v.). Marked as "rare" in Century Dictionary (1902); "in frequent use from c. 1910" [OED].
Example
- 1. Reformers urge the break-up of japan 's power monopolies .
- 2. I start getting the urge to conquer poland .
- 3. I urge you to watch it on youtube .
- 4. Shocking inequalities did not seem to urge people on to the streets .
- 5. He even met mr buffett to urge him to take up the challenge .