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EXPEDIENT
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A means to an end; not necessarily a principled or ethical one
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("expedient" is a kind of...):
agency; means; way (thing or person that acts to produce a particular effect or achieve an end)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "expedient"):
make-do; makeshift; stopgap (something contrived to meet an urgent need or emergency)
crutch (anything that serves as an expedient)
improvisation; temporary expedient (an unplanned expedient)
last resort; pis aller (an expedient adopted only in desperation)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Serving to promote your interest
Example:
was merciful only when mercy was expedient
Classified under:
Similar:
advantageous (appropriate for achieving a particular end; implies a lack of concern for fairness)
opportunist; opportunistic; timeserving (taking immediate advantage, often unethically, of any circumstance of possible benefit)
carpetbag; carpetbagging (presumptuously seeking success or a position in a new locality)
Also:
advantageous; favorable; favourable (giving an advantage)
convenient (suited to your comfort or purpose or needs)
politic (marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness)
useful; utile (being of use or service)
Antonym:
inexpedient (not suitable or advisable)
Derivation:
expedience (taking advantage of opportunities without regard for the consequences for others)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Appropriate to a purpose; practical
Example:
in the circumstances it was expedient to express loyalty
Classified under:
Similar:
politic (marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness)
Derivation:
expedience; expediency (the quality of being suited to the end in view)
Context examples:
The black manikin heard this plot, and at night when the soldier again ordered him to bring the princess, revealed it to him, and told him that he knew of no expedient to counteract this stratagem, and that if the shoe were found in the soldier’s house it would go badly with him.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Admiral Crawford was a man of vicious conduct, who chose, instead of retaining his niece, to bring his mistress under his own roof; and to this Mrs. Grant was indebted for her sister's proposal of coming to her, a measure quite as welcome on one side as it could be expedient on the other; for Mrs. Grant, having by this time run through the usual resources of ladies residing in the country without a family of children—having more than filled her favourite sitting-room with pretty furniture, and made a choice collection of plants and poultry—was very much in want of some variety at home.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
And Elizabeth, to do her justice, had, in the first ardour of female alarm, set seriously to think what could be done, and had finally proposed these two branches of economy, to cut off some unnecessary charities, and to refrain from new furnishing the drawing-room; to which expedients she afterwards added the happy thought of their taking no present down to Anne, as had been the usual yearly custom.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
He would feel himself in the right; and the declaration—made, of course, as a man of sense would make it, in a proper manner—would do him more good, raise him higher, fix his interest stronger with the people he depended on, than all that a line of shifts and expedients can ever do.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
SIR—for I dare not say my dear Copperfield, It is expedient that I should inform you that the undersigned is Crushed.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Her incredulity made her uncomfortable, and failing of other expedient, she said: I know you're hungry, Mart. It's sticking out all over you.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
"I can keep you in reasonable check now," I reflected; "and I don't doubt to be able to do it hereafter: if one expedient loses its virtue, another must be devised."
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
She had wandered away to a subject on which Elinor had nothing to say, and therefore soon judged it expedient to find her way back again to the first.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
My greatest apprehension was for mine eyes, which I should have infallibly lost, if I had not suddenly thought of an expedient.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
But though I may not exactly make converts of you young ladies, I am sure your father, Miss Morland, would agree with me in thinking it expedient to give every young man some employment.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
