0 to make someone do or believe something by giving them a good reason to do it or by talking to that person and making them believe it: --
Her legal advisers persuaded her into/out of mentioning (= to mention/not to mention) the names of the people involved in the robbery.
formal The first priority is to persuade the management of the urgency of this matter.
Using a bunch of bananas, the zoo-keeper persuaded the monkey back into its cage.
[ + to infinitive ] He is trying to persuade local and foreign businesses to invest in the project.
[ + (that) ] It's no use trying to persuade him (that) you're innocent.
If she doesn't want to go, nothing you can say will persuade her.
1 to cause people to do or believe something, esp. by explaining why they should: --
Advocates of retrenchment must persuade affected officials to transcend their special interests for the good of common goals.
A particularly demanding patient can often persuade professionals, especially busy general practitioners and consultants that they need care.
It also uniquely examines the role that allotment payments played in persuading farmers to invest in tractors and combined harvester-thresher ownership.
They need listeners who know how to listen, to understand, and appreciate their efforts to persuade.
Norm entrepreneurs have to persuade, to make something considered natural or appropriate be seen as wrong.
Neither side, however, was able to persuade the other.
Moreover, though some motives are mutually reinforcing, others are contradictory: treating discussion as an opportunity for persuading others, for example, can conflict with educating oneself.
The new political landscape has created new confining conditions, which may persuade the opposition to re-engage in the process of democratic consolidation.