expedient
[ik-spee-dee-uh nt]
- tending to promote some proposed or desired object; fit or suitable for the purpose; proper under the circumstances: It is expedient that you go.
- conducive to advantage or interest, as opposed to right.
- acting in accordance with expediency, or what is advantageous.
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- a means to an end: The ladder was a useful expedient for getting to the second floor.
- a means devised or employed in an exigency; resource; shift: Use any expedients you think necessary to get over the obstacles in your way.
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Origin of expedient
Synonyms
See more synonyms for expedient on Thesaurus.com1. advisable, appropriate, desirable; advantageous, profitable. 5. device, contrivance, resort.
Antonyms
1. disadvantageous.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for expediently
Contemporary Examples
It was impossible not to question the stereotype to which she had been expediently reduced: the white woman from Kansas.
Historical Examples
Having rightly and mercifully threatened to take it, it not only rightly may take it, but expediently must.
The Shadow On The Dial, and Other EssaysAmbrose Bierce
To this he would answer that expediently considered no husband could be better than the one he had chosen her.
The Sea-HawkRaphael Sabatini
expedient
- suitable to the circumstances; appropriate
- inclined towards methods or means that are advantageous rather than fair or just
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- something suitable or appropriate, esp something used during an urgent situation
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin expediēns setting free; see expedite
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for expediently
expedient
adj.
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.).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper