"needs must when the devil drives" meaning in English

See needs must when the devil drives in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Proverb

Etymology: Needs (“of necessity, necessarily”, adverb) must (“one must”, impersonal) when the devil drives. Etymology templates: {{m|en|needs|Needs|of necessity, necessarily|pos=adv}} Needs (“of necessity, necessarily”, adverb), {{m|en|must||one must|pos=impersonal}} must (“one must”, impersonal) Head templates: {{head|en|proverb|head=}} needs must when the devil drives, {{en-proverb}} needs must when the devil drives
  1. There is sometimes no choice but to do some specific thing. Synonyms: needs must [short-form], necessity knows no law Translations (there is sometimes no choice but to do something): hätä ei lue lakia (Finnish), was sein muss, muss sein (German), нужда научит калачи есть (nužda naučit kalači jestʹ) (Russian), a la fuerza ahorcan (Spanish), nöden har ingen lag (Swedish), біда навчить коржі з маком їсти (alt: коржі з салом, вареники) (Ukrainian)
    Sense id: en-needs_must_when_the_devil_drives-en-proverb-mSapgJ~G Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English proverbs

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for needs must when the devil drives meaning in English (2.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "needs",
        "3": "Needs",
        "4": "of necessity, necessarily",
        "pos": "adv"
      },
      "expansion": "Needs (“of necessity, necessarily”, adverb)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "must",
        "3": "",
        "4": "one must",
        "pos": "impersonal"
      },
      "expansion": "must (“one must”, impersonal)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Needs (“of necessity, necessarily”, adverb) must (“one must”, impersonal) when the devil drives.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "needs must when the devil drives",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "needs must when the devil drives",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English proverbs",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1664, Charles Cotton, Scarronides; or, Virgile Travestie",
          "text": "He needs must goe, the Devil drives.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "There is sometimes no choice but to do some specific thing."
      ],
      "id": "en-needs_must_when_the_devil_drives-en-proverb-mSapgJ~G",
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "tags": [
            "short-form"
          ],
          "word": "needs must"
        },
        {
          "word": "necessity knows no law"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
          "word": "hätä ei lue lakia"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
          "word": "was sein muss, muss sein"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "nužda naučit kalači jestʹ",
          "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
          "word": "нужда научит калачи есть"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
          "word": "a la fuerza ahorcan"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
          "word": "nöden har ingen lag"
        },
        {
          "alt": "коржі з салом, вареники",
          "code": "uk",
          "lang": "Ukrainian",
          "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
          "word": "біда навчить коржі з маком їсти"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "needs must when the devil drives"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "needs",
        "3": "Needs",
        "4": "of necessity, necessarily",
        "pos": "adv"
      },
      "expansion": "Needs (“of necessity, necessarily”, adverb)",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "must",
        "3": "",
        "4": "one must",
        "pos": "impersonal"
      },
      "expansion": "must (“one must”, impersonal)",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Needs (“of necessity, necessarily”, adverb) must (“one must”, impersonal) when the devil drives.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "proverb",
        "head": ""
      },
      "expansion": "needs must when the devil drives",
      "name": "head"
    },
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "needs must when the devil drives",
      "name": "en-proverb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "proverb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English proverbs",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1664, Charles Cotton, Scarronides; or, Virgile Travestie",
          "text": "He needs must goe, the Devil drives.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "There is sometimes no choice but to do some specific thing."
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "short-form"
      ],
      "word": "needs must"
    },
    {
      "word": "necessity knows no law"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
      "word": "hätä ei lue lakia"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
      "word": "was sein muss, muss sein"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "nužda naučit kalači jestʹ",
      "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
      "word": "нужда научит калачи есть"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
      "word": "a la fuerza ahorcan"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
      "word": "nöden har ingen lag"
    },
    {
      "alt": "коржі з салом, вареники",
      "code": "uk",
      "lang": "Ukrainian",
      "sense": "there is sometimes no choice but to do something",
      "word": "біда навчить коржі з маком їсти"
    }
  ],
  "word": "needs must when the devil drives"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-26 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (93a6c53 and 21a9316). 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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