[f. L. coact- ppl. stem of coagĕre, cōgĕre to drive together, collect, contract, compel; or, in pa. pple., f. prec. + -ED.]
† 1. trans. To compel, constrain, force, coerce. Obs. exc. as in b.
Orig. used only in pa. pple. = COACT ppl. a. 1.
c. 1400. Test. Love, III. (1560), 295/1. Neyther is coacted ne constrayned.
1494. Fabyan, V. cxl. 124. They lost the field, and were coactyd to flee.
1570. Diurn. Occurr. (1833), 189. Vncompellit or coactit be ony maner of persone.
1651. Raleigh’s Ghost, 242. Vertue coacted and forced, is not vertue.
b. To exercise control upon.
1855. [Miss Cobbe], Ess. Intuitive Morals, 95. As this supersensible world is the background and substans of the phenomenal world, whose laws … it coacts.
† 2. To restrain, confine. Obs. rare.
c. 1520. State Lett., in Burnet, Hist. Ref., II. 90. Not limited and coacted within any such bounds.
1529. Lyndesay, Compl. Lyndesay, 263. Ȝe sall to no man be coactit.
† 3. To draw together, contract; to collect, concentrate. Obs. rare.
1578. Banister, Hist. Man, IV. 54. [The muscles] coact, and make straite the brest strongly.
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 44. The virtue of the earth coacted into one plant.
† 4. To enact together with others. Obs. rare.
1588. Allen, Admon., 4. She enforced vniust lawes, partly made by her supposed father … and partely coacted by herself and her complices.
5. intr. To act together. rare.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. ii. 118. If I tell how these two did coact.
