"necessity knows no law" meaning in English

See necessity knows no law in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Head templates: {{head|en|proverb}} necessity knows no law
  1. A person who is in great need of something will find a way to obtain it, and violate the law if needed. Synonyms: needs must when the devil drives Related terms: desperate times call for desperate measures, all is fair in love and war Translations (a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed): nood breekt wet (Dutch), hätä ei lue lakia (Finnish), nécessité fait loi (French), Not kennt kein Gesetz (German), Not kennt kein Gebot (German), Not bricht Gebot (German), nagy úr a muszáj (Hungarian), szükség törvényt bont (Hungarian), tonący brzytwy się chwyta (english: roughly) (Polish), nöden har ingen lag (Swedish)
    Sense id: en-necessity_knows_no_law-en-proverb-J-3B-RQG Categories (other): English proverbs

Download JSON data for necessity knows no law meaning in English (2.7kB)

{
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb"
      },
      "expansion": "necessity knows no law",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "necessity knows no law, there is no pity and no mercy in war"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress",
          "text": "Necessity knows no law.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who is in great need of something will find a way to obtain it, and violate the law if needed."
      ],
      "id": "en-necessity_knows_no_law-en-proverb-J-3B-RQG",
      "links": [
        [
          "need",
          "need"
        ],
        [
          "violate",
          "violate"
        ],
        [
          "law",
          "law"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "desperate times call for desperate measures"
        },
        {
          "word": "all is fair in love and war"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "needs must when the devil drives"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "nood breekt wet"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "hätä ei lue lakia"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "nécessité fait loi"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "Not kennt kein Gesetz"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "Not kennt kein Gebot"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "Not bricht Gebot"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "nagy úr a muszáj"
        },
        {
          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "szükség törvényt bont"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "english": "roughly",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "tonący brzytwy się chwyta"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
          "word": "nöden har ingen lag"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "necessity knows no law"
}
{
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "necessity knows no law",
      "name": "head"
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  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "desperate times call for desperate measures"
    },
    {
      "word": "all is fair in love and war"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "necessity knows no law, there is no pity and no mercy in war"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1919, Boris Sidis, The Source and Aim of Human Progress",
          "text": "Necessity knows no law.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who is in great need of something will find a way to obtain it, and violate the law if needed."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "need",
          "need"
        ],
        [
          "violate",
          "violate"
        ],
        [
          "law",
          "law"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "needs must when the devil drives"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "nood breekt wet"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "hätä ei lue lakia"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "nécessité fait loi"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "Not kennt kein Gesetz"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "Not kennt kein Gebot"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "Not bricht Gebot"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "nagy úr a muszáj"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "szükség törvényt bont"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "english": "roughly",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "tonący brzytwy się chwyta"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "a person who is in great need of something will find a way to get it, and break the law if needed",
      "word": "nöden har ingen lag"
    }
  ],
  "word": "necessity knows no law"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-03-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-03-01 using wiktextract (68773ab and 5f6ddbb). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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