exigent

Urgent; pressing; needing immediate action.

Adjective

  1. Urgent; pressing; needing immediate action.
    • 2003, Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations, U.S. Department of Defence Article 2 also provides that acts of torture cannot be justified on the grounds of exigent circumstances, such as state of war or public...
  2. Demanding; requiring great effort.

Origin

From Latin exigēns, present active participle of exigō (“demand, require”). Doublet of exigeant.

Forms

more exigent most exigent exigeant

Related

exigence exigency exigenter

Derived

allocatur exigent exigent circumstance exigenter exigently inexigent unexigent

Noun

  1. Extremity; end; limit; pressing urgency.
    • Theſe Eyes, like Lampes, whoſe waſting Oyle is ſpent, / Waxe dimme, as drawing to their Exigent. - 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies,...
    • Therefore as one complaineth, that always in the Senate of Rome [Cicero 5° de finibus.], there was one or other that called for an interpreter: ſo leſt the Church be driuen to the like exigent, it is neceſſary to haue...
  2. The amount that is required.
    • [H]is enterprise / Marked out anew, its exigent of wit / Apportioned, she at liberty to sit / And scheme against the next emergence, […] - 1840 March, Robert Browning, “Book the Third”, in Sordello, London: Edward...
  3. A writ in proceedings before outlawry.
    • They also make forthe writs of executions, and of seifin, writs of super seders, for appearance to exigents - 1607, John Cowell, The Interpreter:

Forms

exigents exigeant