wherewithal

plural wherewithals

1. countableuncountableThe ability and means required to accomplish some task.

   I would like to help your project, but I do not have the wherewithal.

   5 more examples

   Justice was sold at the tribunals, and the most enormous crimes escaped from punishment, when the criminals had wherewithal to corrupt their judges.

   1688, John Dryden, The Life of St Francis Xavier, book II, translation of original by Dominique Bouhours

   Big Council meeting! At the bookshop in twenty minutes. Carfare will be refunded. Can we scrape together the wherewithal?

   1954, Edward Eager, Half Magic

   "I just can't imagine," Philip said, "having that kind of self-knowledge, that kind of...wherewithal at fifteen.[…]"

   1986, David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, paperback edition, Penguin, page 67

   […] A single slice of this could leave you supine in front of the Queen's speech without even the wherewithal to reach for the remote control.

   2011 December 15, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in Guardian

   Although Emma comes to realise she's trapped in a kind of hell, married to a dullard she despises, she lacks the intellectual wherewithal to plot a breakout more sophisticated than consorting with idiots such as Leon and Rodolphe.

   2019, John O’Connell, Bowie's Bookshelf, →ISBN

   Synonyms: means

1. archaicnot comparableIn what way; how.

   Wherewithall shall a yong man cleanse his way? by taking heede thereto according to thy word.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 119:9

2. archaicnot comparableBy means of which.

   Rich. Northumberland, thou Ladder wherewithall / The mounting Bullingbrooke aſcends my Throne

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i], page 41, column 2

   Synonyms: whereby, wherewith