EXHORT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does exhort mean? 

• EXHORT (verb)
  The verb EXHORT has 2 senses:

1. spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts

2. force or impel in an indicated direction

  Familiarity information: EXHORT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXHORT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they exhort    ... he / she / it exhorts   
Past simple: exhorted   
Past participle: exhorted   
-ing form: exhorting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spur on or encourage especially by cheers and shouts

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

The crowd cheered the demonstrating strikers

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Force or impel in an indicated direction

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

exhort; press; urge; urge on

Context example:

I urged him to finish his studies

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)

 Context examples 

She went so far as to imagine Martin proposing, herself putting the words into his mouth; and she rehearsed her refusal, tempering it with kindness and exhorting him to true and noble manhood.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

We exhorted him to be resolute in this, and left my aunt to observe him.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Well, said she, I am not in voice, and it is ill to play in a little room with but two to listen, but you must conceive me to be the Queen of the Peruvians, who is exhorting her countrymen to rise up against the Spaniards, who are oppressing them.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You say truly; but when found, it is right to stir them up—to urge and exhort them to the effort—to show them what their gifts are, and why they were given—to speak Heaven's message in their ear,—to offer them, direct from God, a place in the ranks of His chosen.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The sham chaplain came into our cells to exhort us, carrying a black bag, supposed to be full of tracts, and so often did he come that by the third day we had each stowed away at the foot of our beds a file, a brace of pistols, a pound of powder, and twenty slugs.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I should here observe to the reader, that a decree of the general assembly in this country is expressed by the word hnhloayn, which signifies an exhortation, as near as I can render it; for they have no conception how a rational creature can be compelled, but only advised, or exhorted; because no person can disobey reason, without giving up his claim to be a rational creature.

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

"Dig up, you venerable discourager of rising young talent!" Martin exhorted.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

When Miss Mills undertook the office and returned with Dora, exhorting us, from the pulpit of her own bitter youth, to mutual concession, and the avoidance of the Desert of Sahara!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He added, how I had endeavoured to persuade him, that in my own and other countries, the Yahoos acted as the governing, rational animal, and held the Houyhnhnms in servitude; that he observed in me all the qualities of a Yahoo, only a little more civilized by some tincture of reason, which, however, was in a degree as far inferior to the Houyhnhnm race, as the Yahoos of their country were to me; that, among other things, I mentioned a custom we had of castrating Houyhnhnms when they were young, in order to render them tame; that the operation was easy and safe; that it was no shame to learn wisdom from brutes, as industry is taught by the ant, and building by the swallow (for so I translate the word lyhannh, although it be a much larger fowl); that this invention might be practised upon the younger Yahoos here, which besides rendering them tractable and fitter for use, would in an age put an end to the whole species, without destroying life; that in the mean time the Houyhnhnms should be exhorted to cultivate the breed of asses, which, as they are in all respects more valuable brutes, so they have this advantage, to be fit for service at five years old, which the others are not till twelve.

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

"Now don't get cynical," Martin exhorted.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)