prevail upon

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prevail upon (third-person singular simple present prevails upon, present participle prevailing upon, simple past and past participle prevailed upon)

1. (idiomatic) To convince; to persuade.

   Perhaps I can prevail upon him to change his mind.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

     The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.