\Ne*ces"si*ty\, n.; pl. {Necessities}. [OE. necessite,
F. n['e]cessit['e], L. necessitas, fr. necesse. See
{Necessary}.]
1. The quality or state of being necessary, unavoidable, or
   absolutely requisite; inevitableness; indispensableness.
2. The condition of being needy or necessitous; pressing
   need; indigence; want.
         Urge the necessity and state of times. --Shak.
         The extreme poverty and necessity his majesty was
         in.                                   --Clarendon.
3. That which is necessary; a necessary; a requisite;
   something indispensable; -- often in the plural.
         These should be hours for necessities, Not for
         delights.                             --Shak.
         What was once to me Mere matter of the fancy, now
         has grown The vast necessity of heart and life.
                                               --Tennyson.
4. That which makes an act or an event unavoidable;
   irresistible force; overruling power; compulsion, physical
   or moral; fate; fatality.
         So spake the fiend, and with necessity, The tyrant's
         plea, excused his devilish deeds.     --Milton.
5. (Metaph.) The negation of freedom in voluntary action; the
   subjection of all phenomena, whether material or
   spiritual, to inevitable causation; necessitarianism.
{Of necessity}, by necessary consequence; by compulsion, or
   irresistible power; perforce.
Syn: See {Need}.