Other forms: urged, urging, urges
To urge someone is to push them hard with words to do something — not order, not suggest, but press. Doctors urge people to give up smoking, a friend urges you to ring her back, the announcement urges passengers to stand clear of the doors.
The pattern is urge someone to do something, and you can urge the action itself: they urged caution, he urged restraint. Urge on means to drive forward — the crowd urged the runners on. The noun is just as common: an urge is a sudden wish you never planned, the urge to laugh in church, an urge for chocolate at midnight. Urging is done with words and feeling, not with hands — you push a door, you urge a person. Urgent and urgency belong to the same family and carry the same pressure.
1verburgeTo try hard to persuade someone to do something.
“Her mother urged her to take the job.”
2verbadvocateTo recommend something strongly.
“The report urges caution over the new drug.”
synonyms: advocate, press for
3verbdriveTo drive or encourage a person or animal to move forward.
“He urged the horse up the last stretch of the hill.”
4nounimpulseA strong, sudden wish to do something.
“He felt a sudden urge to walk out of the meeting.”
synonyms: impulse, craving
Also accepted in games: press
English took urge straight from Latin urgeō, a verb of pressing and driving. Almost nothing changed on the way except the ending. The same Latin verb stands behind urgent and urgency, so the whole family shares one idea: pressure applied until something moves.
Latin
urgeō — urge
English, today
urge
From Latin urgeō (“urge”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA