1.
[syn: inevitably, necessarily, of necessity, needs]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Necessity \Ne*ces"si*ty\, n.; pl. Necessities. [OE. necessite,
F. n['e]cessit['e], L. necessitas, fr. necesse. See
Necessary.]
1. The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or
absolutely requisite; inevitableness; indispensableness.
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2. The condition of being needy or necessitous; pressing
need; indigence; want.
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Urge the necessity and state of times. --Shak.
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The extreme poverty and necessity his majesty was
in. --Clarendon.
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3. That which is necessary; a necessary; a requisite;
something indispensable; -- often in the plural.
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These should be hours for necessities,
Not for delights. --Shak.
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What was once to me
Mere matter of the fancy, now has grown
The vast necessity of heart and life. --Tennyson.
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4. That which makes an act or an event unavoidable;
irresistible force; overruling power; compulsion, physical
or moral; fate; fatality.
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So spake the fiend, and with necessity,
The tyrant's plea, excused his devilish deeds.
--Milton.
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5. (Metaph.) The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the
subjection of all phenomena, whether material or
spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism.
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Of necessity, by necessary consequence; by compulsion, or
irresistible power; perforce.
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Syn: See Need.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
of necessity
adv 1: in such a manner as could not be otherwise; "it is
necessarily so"; "we must needs by objective" [syn:
inevitably, necessarily, of necessity, needs]