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To reduce to the necessity of; to force; to compel. The Marquis of Newcastle, being pressed on both sides, was necessitated to draw all his army into York. Clarendon.

A state that requires supply or relief; pressing occasion for something; necessity; urgent want. And the city had no need of the sun. Rev. xxi. 23. I have no need to beg. Shak. Be governed by your needs, not by your fancy. Jer. Taylor.

Necessarily; of necessity. [Obs.] hak.

Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. A man must needs love mauger his head. Chaucer. And he must needs go through Samaria. John iv. 4. He would needs know the cause of his reulse. Sir J. Davies.

Of necessity. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Of necessity. [Obs.] Drayton.

by interception; to remove from the way or path; to make unnecessary; as, to obviate the necessity of going. To lay down everything in its full light, so as to obviate all exceptions. Woodward.

Need; exigency; requirement; necessity; as, I have no occasion for firearms. After we have served ourselves and our own occasions. Jer. Taylor. When my occasions took me into France. Burke.

pose or action; as, they went of their own will; no body can move of itself; he did it of necessity. For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts. Josh. xi. 20.

enforcement; as, to outlaw a debt or claim; to deprive of legal force. "Laws outlawed by necessity." Fuller.

That which is alleged or pleaded, in defense or in justification; an excuse; an apology. "Necessity, the tyrant's plea." Milton. No plea must serve; 't is cruelty to spare. Denham.

rm of the verb which is used to express possibility, liberty, power, will, obligation, or necessity, by the use of may, can, must, might, could, would, or should; as, I may go; he can write.

as, a premium for good behavior or scholarship, for discoveries, etc. To think it not the necessity, but the premium and privilege of life, to eat and sleep without any regard to glory. Burke. The law that obliges parishes to support the poor offers a premium for the encouragement of idleness. Franklin.…

Urgent; exacting; importunate; as, a pressing necessity. -- Press"ing*ly, adv.

Given to extravagant expenditure; expending money or other things without necessity; recklessly or viciously profuse; lavish; wasteful; not frugal or economical; as, a prodigal man; the prodigal son; prodigal giving; prodigal expenses. In fighting fields [patriots] were prodigal of blood. Dryden.

cting punishment; as, punitive law or justice. If death be punitive, so, likewise, is the necessity imposed upon man of toiling for his subsistence. I. Taylor. We shall dread a blow from the punitive hand. Bagehot.

rack was introduced into the Tower, and was occasionally used under the plea of political necessity. Macaulay.

condition. [Obs.] And to his brother's house reduced his wife. Chapman. The sheep must of necessity be scattered, unless the great Shephered of souls oppose, or some of his delegates reduce and direct us. Evelyn.

one, But perfect shadows in a sunshine day Marlowe. The law of nature doth now require of necessity some kind of regiment. Hocker.

To hinder from doing, suffering, or happening; to obviate the necessity of; to prevent; to spare. Will you not speak to save a lady's blush Dryden.