NECESSITOUS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does necessitous mean? 

• NECESSITOUS (adjective)
  The adjective NECESSITOUS has 1 sense:

1. poor enough to need help from others

  Familiarity information: NECESSITOUS used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• NECESSITOUS (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Poor enough to need help from others

Synonyms:

destitute; impoverished; indigent; necessitous; needy; poverty-stricken

Similar:

poor (having little money or few possessions)

Derivation:

necessity (anything indispensable)

 Context examples 

He would have had a wife of whose temper he could make no complaint, but he would have been always necessitous—always poor; and probably would soon have learned to rank the innumerable comforts of a clear estate and good income as of far more importance, even to domestic happiness, than the mere temper of a wife.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

It taught him that he had been scarcely more misled by Thorpe's first boast of the family wealth than by his subsequent malicious overthrow of it; that in no sense of the word were they necessitous or poor, and that Catherine would have three thousand pounds.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

They were, in fact, a necessitous family; numerous, too, almost beyond example; by no means respected in their own neighbourhood, as he had lately had particular opportunities of discovering; aiming at a style of life which their fortune could not warrant; seeking to better themselves by wealthy connections; a forward, bragging, scheming race.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)