Persuasion

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Persuasion \Per*sua"sion\, n. [L. persuasio; Cf. F. persuasion.]
     1. The act of persuading; the act of influencing the mind by
        arguments or reasons offered, or by anything that moves
        the mind or passions, or inclines the will to a
        determination.
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              For thou hast all the arts of fine persuasion.
                                                    --Otway.
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     2. The state of being persuaded or convinced; settled opinion
        or conviction, which has been induced.
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              If the general persuasion of all men does so account
              it.                                   --Hooker.
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              My firm persuasion is, at least sometimes,
              That Heaven will weigh man's virtues and his crimes
              With nice attention.                  --Cowper.
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     3. A creed or belief; a sect or party adhering to a certain
        creed or system of opinions; as, of the same persuasion;
        all persuasions are agreed.
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              Of whatever state or persuasion, religious or
              political.                            --Jefferson.
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     4. The power or quality of persuading; persuasiveness.
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              Is 't possible that my deserts to you
              Can lack persuasion?                  --Shak.
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     5. That which persuades; a persuasive. [R.]
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     Syn: See {Conviction}.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  persuasion
       n 1: the act of persuading (or attempting to persuade);
            communication intended to induce belief or action [syn:
            {suasion}]
       2: a personal belief or judgment that is not founded on proof
          or certainty; "my opinion differs from yours"; "what are
          your thoughts on Haiti?" [syn: {opinion}, {sentiment}, {view},
           {thought}]
       3: inducement to act by argument or reasoning or entreaty [ant:
           {dissuasion}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  176 Moby Thesaurus words for "persuasion":
     adherents, affiliation, allurement, ascendancy, authority, belief,
     bias, blandishment, blood, body, branch, brand, breed, cajolement,
     cajolery, cast, character, charisma, charm, church, clan, class,
     clout, coaxing, color, communion, community, confession,
     connection, conning, consequence, control, conversion, conviction,
     credit, creed, cult, denomination, description, designation,
     disciples, division, dominance, domination, effect, eminence,
     enchantment, engagement, enlistment, esteem, evangelization,
     exhortation, exhorting, eye, faction, faith, favor, feather,
     feeling, fellowship, fixed opinion, followers, force, form, genre,
     genus, good feeling, grain, group, hold, hortation, ilk,
     implicit belief, importance, incidental power, inducement,
     inducing, influence, influencing, influentiality, insinuation, ism,
     jawboning, kidney, kin, kind, label, leadership, leverage, line,
     lobbying, lot, magnetism, make, manner, mark, mastery,
     mature judgment, mind, mold, moment, nature, number, offshoot,
     opinion, order, organization, partiality, party, personality,
     persuading, phylum, potency, power, preaching, preachment,
     predilection, predominance, prejudice, preponderance,
     prepossession, pressure, prestige, proselytism, proselytization,
     purchase, race, reign, religion, religious order, repute, rule,
     sales talk, salesmanship, say, schism, school, school of thought,
     sect, sectarism, segment, selling, sentiment, settled judgment,
     shape, snow job, society, soft soap, solicitation, sort, species,
     stamp, staunch belief, steadfast faith, strain, stripe, style,
     suasion, subtle influence, suggestion, supremacy, sway, sweet talk,
     the like of, the likes of, tribe, type, unshaken confidence,
     upper hand, variety, version, view, weight, wheedling, whip hand,
     working on
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PERSUASION. The act of influencing by expostulation or request. While the 
  persuasion is confined within those limits which leave the mind free, it may 
  be used to induce another to make his will, or even to make it in his own 
  favor; but if such persuasion should so far operate on the mind of the 
  testator, that he would be deprived of a perfectly free will, it would 
  vitiate the instrument. 3 Serg. & Rawle, 269; 5 Serg. & Rawle, 207; 13 Serg. 
  & Rawle, 323.