expedient

Word Origin & History

late 14c., "advantageous, fit, proper," from Old French expedient (14c.) or directly from Latin expedientem (nominative expediens) "beneficial," present participle of expedire "make fit or ready, prepare" (see expedite).

The noun meaning "a device adopted in an exigency, a resource" is from 1650s. Related: Expediential (1836); expedientially (1873); expediently (late 14c.).

Example Sentences for expedient

Captain Baker applied himself to this task, and used every expedient.

This expedient, however, nearly proved fatal in its consequences.

No need then of the expedient of pursuing your needleworks in her sight.

This: It is useless to talk or to think unless it is also possible and expedient to act.

For the expedient has to do with the future, about which we are liable to mistake.

That to appease God's wrath it was expedient that this Jew should die?

Leave me to think it over, and perhaps I can hit upon the expedient.

Your dear aunt was on the high-road to this goal, when I bethought me of my expedient!

We have no right to ask if it is expedient to grant suffrage to women.

This expedient to palliate my folly was thought of—but not by me.

expedient

devices

excuse

excuses

expediencies

expediency

extemporaneous

extemporaneous/extemporary

feasible

expedient

More words related to expedient