prevail upon

English edit

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

(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.

to persuade, to convince