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INDISPENSABLE
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Unavoidable
Example:
the routine but indispensable ceremonies of state
Classified under:
Similar:
obligatory (morally or legally constraining or binding)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not to be dispensed with; essential
Example:
foods indispensable to good nutrition
Classified under:
Similar:
critical; vital (urgently needed; absolutely necessary)
Also:
necessary (absolutely essential)
Attribute:
dispensability; dispensableness (the quality possessed by something that you can get along without)
Antonym:
dispensable (capable of being dispensed with or done without)
Derivation:
indispensability; indispensableness (the quality possessed by something that you cannot possibly do without)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Absolutely necessary; vitally necessary
Example:
an indispensable worker
Synonyms:
essential; indispensable
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
necessary (absolutely essential)
Derivation:
indispensability; indispensableness (the quality possessed by something that you cannot possibly do without)
Context examples:
With the size and furniture of the house Mrs. Dashwood was upon the whole well satisfied; for though her former style of life rendered many additions to the latter indispensable, yet to add and improve was a delight to her; and she had at this time ready money enough to supply all that was wanted of greater elegance to the apartments.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Absolutely or vitally necessary; indispensable.
(Essential, NCI Thesaurus)
I remembered also the necessity imposed upon me of either journeying to England or entering into a long correspondence with those philosophers of that country whose knowledge and discoveries were of indispensable use to me in my present undertaking.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
Towards the end of the morning, however, Catherine, having occasion for some indispensable yard of ribbon which must be bought without a moment's delay, walked out into the town, and in Bond Street overtook the second Miss Thorpe as she was loitering towards Edgar's Buildings between two of the sweetest girls in the world, who had been her dear friends all the morning.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
She considered it as an act of indispensable duty to clear away the claims of creditors with all the expedition which the most comprehensive retrenchments could secure, and saw no dignity in anything short of it.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Uriah, she replied, after a moment's hesitation, has made himself indispensable to papa.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Mr. Weston entered into the idea with thorough enjoyment, and Mrs. Weston most willingly undertook to play as long as they could wish to dance; and the interesting employment had followed, of reckoning up exactly who there would be, and portioning out the indispensable division of space to every couple.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Every qualification is raised at times, by the circumstances of the moment, to more than its real value; and she was sometimes worried down by officious condolence to rate good-breeding as more indispensable to comfort than good-nature.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Next Mrs. Crupp said it was clear she couldn't be in two places at once (which I felt to be reasonable), and that a young gal stationed in the pantry with a bedroom candle, there never to desist from washing plates, would be indispensable.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Oh! yes, quite indispensable.”
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
