Necessitous
adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Needy, indigent, destitute, poor. archaic
"[W]ith what Face could Wretches who had ravaged and made so many Neceſſitous, look up for Relief; they had to that Moment lived in Defiance of the Power that now alone they muſt truſt for their Preſervation, […]"
- 2 Lacking; required.
"Ministers come down I can promise them plenty of entertainment by deputations waiting on them and reminding them of the fact that we are a live people and are anxious to have a portion of the necessitous things conferred on the district."
- 3 Necessary; unavoidable.
"6thly, That there shall be prayers twice a day at due times to be appointed by the schoolmaster (holidays and sickness, or any other needful and necessitous cause to be shewn to the contrary) and to be said by him in the school house adjoining the alms-houses; at which prayers, I ordain, that all the almswomen of the said almshouse be duly and daily there present (except they be hindered by reason of sickness, or some other tolerable cause to be admitted) of whom the schoolmaster was to examine into the same, wherein I desire him to be very careful to observe."
- 1 poor enough to need help from others wordnet
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"We have come to the clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. Necessitous men are not free men. People who are hungry and out of job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made."
Etymology
From necessity + -ous, after Middle French nécessiteux.
More for "necessitous"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.