Definition of "necessitous" []

• Needy; indigent. (adjective)
• Compelling; urgent. (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "He said that necessitous men and women cannot be free."
• "The Lord Chancellor of England pointed out in 1762, "necessitous men are not free men.""
• "And sometimes it represents the ability of the trader to force necessitous men to cooperate in return for no more than subsistence pay."