Necessary

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Necessary \Nec"es*sa*ry\, n.; pl. {Necessaries}.
     1. A thing that is necessary or indispensable to some
        purpose; something that one can not do without; a
        requisite; an essential; -- used chiefly in the plural;
        as, the necessaries of life.
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     2. A privy; a water-closet.
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     3. pl. (Law) Such things, in respect to infants, lunatics,
        and married women, as are requisite for support suitable
        to station.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Necessary \Nec"es*sa*ry\, a. [L. necessarius, from necesse
     unavoidable, necessary; of uncertain origin: cf. F.
     n['e]cessaire.]
     1. Such as must be; impossible to be otherwise; not to be
        avoided; inevitable.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Death, a necessary end,
              Will come when it will come.          --Shak.
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     2. Impossible to be otherwise, or to be dispensed with,
        without preventing the attainment of a desired result;
        indispensable; requisite; essential. "'T is necessary he
        should die." --Shak.
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              A certain kind of temper is necessary to the
              pleasure and quiet of our minds.      --Tillotson.
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     3. Acting from necessity or compulsion; involuntary; --
        opposed to {free}; as, whether man is a necessary or a
        free agent is a question much discussed.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  necessary
       adj 1: absolutely essential [ant: {unnecessary}]
       2: unavoidably determined by prior circumstances; "the
          necessary consequences of one's actions"
       n : anything indispensable; "food and shelter are necessities of
           life"; "the essentials of the good life"; "allow farmers
           to buy their requirements under favorable conditions"; "a
           place where the requisites of water fuel and fodder can
           be obtained" [syn: {necessity}, {essential}, {requirement},
            {requisite}] [ant: {inessential}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  94 Moby Thesaurus words for "necessary":
     absolute, apodictic, backhouse, binding, bound, called for,
     cardinal, certain, choiceless, clear, clear and distinct,
     clear as day, closet, compelling, compulsory, conclusive,
     constraining, crapper, de rigueur, decisive, definite, determinate,
     dictated, essential, exigent, fated, fateful, fundamental,
     imperative, imperious, important, importunate, indefeasible,
     indicated, indispensable, ineluctable, ineludible, inerrable,
     inerrant, inescapable, inevasible, inevitable, inexorable,
     infallible, inflexible, involuntary, irreducible, irreductible,
     irreplaceable, irresistible, irrevocable, jakes, mandatory,
     momentous, must, necessitous, needed, needful, obligatory, office,
     outhouse, peremptory, perfectly sure, positive, predestined,
     predetermined, prerequisite, relentless, required, requisite,
     resistless, significant, sure, sure as death, sure as fate,
     sure-enough, true, unambiguous, unavoidable, uncontrollable,
     undeflectable, unequivocal, unerring, unevadable, unforgoable,
     univocal, unmistakable, unpreventable, unstoppable, unyielding,
     urgent, vital, wanted, without choice