resource

[ree-sawrs, -sohrs, -zawrs, -zohrs, ri-sawrs, -sohrs, -zawrs, -zohrs]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR resource ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

a source of supply, support, or aid, especially one that can be readily drawn upon when needed.

resources, the collective wealth of a country or its means of producing wealth.

Usually resources. money, or any property that can be converted into money; assets.

Often resources. an available means afforded by the mind or one's personal capabilities: to have resource against loneliness.

an action or measure to which one may have recourse in an emergency; expedient.

capability in dealing with a situation or in meeting difficulties: a woman of resource.

Origin of resource

1640–50; < French ressource, Old French ressourse, noun derivative of resourdre to rise up < Latin resurgere, equivalent to re- re- + surgere to rise up, lift; see resurge, source

Related formsre·source·less, adjectivere·source·less·ness, noun

Synonyms for resource

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR resource ON THESAURUS.COM

1, 5. resort. 5. means, contrivance, shift. 6. inventiveness, adapability, ingenuity, cleverness.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for resource

ability, talent, wealth, means, support, system, capability, source, capital, property, reserve, stratagem, ingenuity, appliance, creation, course, initiative, measure, cleverness, makeshift

Examples from the Web for resource

Contemporary Examples of resource

We fight over their ownership and control, as if reality were a resource as scarce as the water and oil in Mad Max.
On Torture, Chuck Johnson & Sondheim
James Poulos
December 13, 2014
She views music and pop culture as a resource for people to figure out where we are as a society.
From Church of Christ to Pansexual Rapper
Tyler Gillespie
November 28, 2014
For those in the resource world, every ton of junk that goes into a landfill represents wasted energy.
Garbage In, Power Out
The Daily Beast
November 24, 2014
And he used that resource to its fullest 128 years ago this week.
128 Years Old and Still a Looker: Happy Birthday to Lady Liberty
Elizabeth Mitchell
October 28, 2014
And for that, it turned to the one resource it has in abundance—aside from seawater.
Sun+Water= High Tech Caribbean Luxury At The Cusinart Resort
The Daily Beast
June 11, 2014

Historical Examples of resource

She was apt not only to know what she talked about, but she was a woman of resource, unafraid of action.
The Spenders
Harry Leon Wilson
"And have left her no other resource," said Harry, coloring still more.
Malbone
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
This was his only resource against the unpleasantness of the day.
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald
Only the people, long-suffering and generous, remain as his resource.
The Call of the Twentieth Century
David Starr Jordan
But they were told, that this was the resource of the Jews of old.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
David Hume

British Dictionary definitions for resource

resource

noun

capability, ingenuity, and initiative; quick-wittednessa man of resource

(often plural) a source of economic wealth, esp of a country (mineral, land, labour, etc) or business enterprise (capital, equipment, personnel, etc)

a supply or source of aid or support; something resorted to in time of need

a means of doing something; expedient

Derived Formsresourceless, adjectiveresourcelessness, noun

Word Origin for resource

C17: from Old French ressourse relief, from resourdre to rise again, from Latin resurgere, from re- + surgere to rise

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for resource

1610s, "means of supplying a want or deficiency," from French resourse "a source, spring," noun use of fem. past participle of Old French resourdre "to rally, raise again," from Latin resurgere "rise again" (see resurgent). Resources "a country's wealth" first recorded 1779.

1975, from resource (n.). Related: Resourced; resourcing.