EXPEDIENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does expedient mean? 

• EXPEDIENT (noun)
  The noun EXPEDIENT has 1 sense:

1. a means to an end; not necessarily a principled or ethical one

  Familiarity information: EXPEDIENT used as a noun is very rare.

• EXPEDIENT (adjective)
  The adjective EXPEDIENT has 2 senses:

1. serving to promote your interest

2. appropriate to a purpose; practical

  Familiarity information: EXPEDIENT used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• EXPEDIENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A means to an end; not necessarily a principled or ethical one

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("expedient" is a kind of...):

agency; means; way (thing or person that acts to produce a particular effect or achieve an end)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "expedient"):

make-do; makeshift; stopgap (something contrived to meet an urgent need or emergency)

crutch (anything that serves as an expedient)

improvisation; temporary expedient (an unplanned expedient)

last resort; pis aller (an expedient adopted only in desperation)

• EXPEDIENT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Serving to promote your interest

Context example:

was merciful only when mercy was expedient

Similar:

advantageous (appropriate for achieving a particular end; implies a lack of concern for fairness)

opportunist; opportunistic; timeserving (taking immediate advantage, often unethically, of any circumstance of possible benefit)

carpetbag; carpetbagging (presumptuously seeking success or a position in a new locality)

Also:

advantageous; favorable; favourable (giving an advantage)

convenient (suited to your comfort or purpose or needs)

politic (marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness)

useful; utile (being of use or service)

Antonym:

inexpedient (not suitable or advisable)

Derivation:

expedience (taking advantage of opportunities without regard for the consequences for others)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Appropriate to a purpose; practical

Context example:

in the circumstances it was expedient to express loyalty

Similar:

politic (marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness)

Derivation:

expedience; expediency (the quality of being suited to the end in view)

 Context examples 

We judged it expedient, now, to tell her all we knew; which I recounted at length.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

"You can be expedient at the same time, and practical," Womble said sharply.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

In fact, it was expedient to cook sitting down; standing up, he was too often in his own way.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I bethought myself of an expedient.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Elinor was not prepared for such a question, and having no answer ready, was obliged to adopt the simple and common expedient, of asking what he meant?

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

He found it expedient to be cautious all the time, except for the rare moments, when, assured of his own intrepidity, he abandoned himself to petty rages and lusts.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Several others declared their sentiments to the same purpose, when my master proposed an expedient to the assembly, whereof he had indeed borrowed the hint from me.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Knowing my methods as you do, you were, of course, conscious of the somewhat clumsy water-pot expedient by which I obtained a clearer impress of his foot than might otherwise have been possible.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It had been settled in the evening between the aunt and the niece, that such a striking civility as Miss Darcy's in coming to see them on the very day of her arrival at Pemberley, for she had reached it only to a late breakfast, ought to be imitated, though it could not be equalled, by some exertion of politeness on their side; and, consequently, that it would be highly expedient to wait on her at Pemberley the following morning.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

It is now expedient to give some description of Mrs. Allen, that the reader may be able to judge in what manner her actions will hereafter tend to promote the general distress of the work, and how she will, probably, contribute to reduce poor Catherine to all the desperate wretchedness of which a last volume is capable—whether by her imprudence, vulgarity, or jealousy—whether by intercepting her letters, ruining her character, or turning her out of doors.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)