Definition of "wherewithal" []

• The necessary means, especially financial means: didn't have the wherewithal to survive an economic downturn. (noun)
• Wherewith. (conjunction)
• Wherewith. (pronoun)

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.

• "All which cautions of mine, which I think he deemed to be disdains, did inflame more his lascivious appetite (for this is the name wherewithal I entitle his affection towards me), which, had it been such as it ought, you had not known it now, for then the cause of revealing it had not befallen me."
• ": haply we shall find therein wherewithal to win the favour of the Commander of the Faithful."
• "” I answered her troubled and hastily, fearing I should not have the leisure to reply unto her, saying, “Sweet lady, let thy works verify thy words; for if thou carriest a poniard to defend thy credit, I do here likewise bear a sword wherewithal I will defend thee, or kill myself, if fortune prove adverse and contrary."