exigent

comparative more exigent · superlative most exigent · alternative exigeant

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 emergency, or on orders from a superior officer or public authority.

2. Demanding; requiring great effort.

plural exigents · alternative exigeant

1. archaicExtremity; 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, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v], page 104, column 2

   1 more example

   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 tranſlations in a readineſſe.

   1611, [Miles Smith], “The Translators to the Reader”, in The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC

2. archaicThe 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 Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 102

3. UKobsoletelawA 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