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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Necessary \Nec"es*sa*ry\, noun; pl. {Necessaries}.
1. A thing that is necessary or indispensable to some purpose; something that one can not do without; a requisite; an essential; -- used chiefly in the plural; as, the necessaries of life.
2. A privy; a water-closet.
3. pl. (Law) Such things, in respect to infants, lunatics, and married women, as are requisite for support suitable to station.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Necessary \Nec"es*sa*ry\, adjective [L. necessarius, from necesse unavoidable, necessary; of uncertain origin: cf. F. n['e]cessaire.]
1. Such as must be; impossible to be otherwise; not to be avoided; inevitable.
Death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come. --Shak.
2. Impossible to be otherwise, or to be dispensed with, without preventing the attainment of a desired result; indispensable; requisite; essential. '''T is necessary he should die.'' --Shak.
A certain kind of temper is necessary to the pleasure and quiet of our minds. --Tillotson.
3. Acting from necessity or compulsion; involuntary; -- opposed to {free}; as, whether man is a necessary or a free agent is a question much discussed.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
necessary
adjective
1: absolutely essential [ant: {unnecessary}]
2: unavoidably determined by prior circumstances; "the necessary consequences of one's actions"
noun: anything indispensable; "food and shelter are necessities of life"; "the essentials of the good life"; "allow farmers to buy their requirements under favorable conditions"; "a place where the requisites of water fuel and fodder can be obtained" [syn: {necessity}, {essential}, {requirement}, {requisite}] [ant: {inessential}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
94 Moby Thesaurus words for "necessary": absolute, apodictic, backhouse, binding, bound, called for, cardinal, certain, choiceless, clear, clear and distinct, clear as day, closet, compelling, compulsory, conclusive, constraining, crapper, de rigueur, decisive, definite, determinate, dictated, essential, exigent, fated, fateful, fundamental, imperative, imperious, important, importunate, indefeasible, indicated, indispensable, ineluctable, ineludible, inerrable, inerrant, inescapable, inevasible, inevitable, inexorable, infallible, inflexible, involuntary, irreducible, irreductible, irreplaceable, irresistible, irrevocable, jakes, mandatory, momentous, must, necessitous, needed, needful, obligatory, office, outhouse, peremptory, perfectly sure, positive, predestined, predetermined, prerequisite, relentless, required, requisite, resistless, significant, sure, sure as death, sure as fate, sure-enough, true, unambiguous, unavoidable, uncontrollable, undeflectable, unequivocal, unerring, unevadable, unforgoable, univocal, unmistakable, unpreventable, unstoppable, unyielding, urgent, vital, wanted, without choice
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