1  definition  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  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. 
 
  2.  The  condition  of  being  needy  or  necessitous;  pressing 
  need  indigence;  want 
 
  Urge  the  necessity  and  state  of  times.  --Shak. 
 
  The  extreme  poverty  and  necessity  his  majesty  was 
  in  --Clarendon. 
 
  3.  That  which  is  necessary;  a  necessary;  a  requisite; 
  something  indispensable;  --  often  in  the  plural. 
 
  These  should  be  hours  for  necessities,  Not  for 
  delights.  --Shak. 
 
  What  was  once  to  me  Mere  matter  of  the  fancy,  now 
  has  grown  The  vast  necessity  of  heart  and  life. 
  --Tennyson. 
 
  4.  That  which  makes  an  act  or  an  event  unavoidable; 
  irresistible  force;  overruling  power;  compulsion,  physical 
  or  moral;  fate;  fatality. 
 
  So  spake  the  fiend,  and  with  necessity,  The  tyrant's 
  plea,  excused  his  devilish  deeds.  --Milton. 
 
  5.  (Metaph.)  The  negation  of  freedom  in  voluntary  action  the 
  subjection  of  all  phenomena,  whether  material  or 
  spiritual,  to  inevitable  causation;  necessitarianism. 
 
  {Of  necessity},  by  necessary  consequence;  by  compulsion,  or 
  irresistible  power;  perforce. 
 
  Syn:  See  {Need}. 

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