exigent meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

exigent

adj

UK, US /ˈɛk.sɪ.d͡ʒənt/

Etymology From Latin exigēns, present active participle of exigō (“demand, require”). Doublet of exigeant.

Urgent; pressing; needing immediate action.

2003, Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations, U.S. Department of Defence Article 2 also provides that acts of torture cannot be justified on the grounds of exigent circumstances, such as state of war or public emergency, or on orders from a superior officer or public authority.

Demanding; requiring great effort.

Derived terms: allocatur exigent, exigent circumstance, exigenter, exigently, inexigent, unexigent
Related terms: exigence, exigency, exigenter

noun

Etymology From Latin exigēns, present active participle of exigō (“demand, require”). Doublet of exigeant.

Archaic Extremity; end; limit; pressing urgency.

Theſe Eyes, like Lampes, whoſe waſting Oyle is ſpent, / Waxe dimme, as drawing to their Exigent.1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v], page 104, column 2:
Therefore as one complaineth, that always in the Senate of Rome [Cicero 5° de finibus.], there was one or other that called for an interpreter: ſo leſt the Church be driuen to the like exigent, it is neceſſary to haue tranſlations in a readineſſe.1611, [Miles Smith], “The Translators to the Reader”, in The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC:

Archaic The amount that is required.

[H]is enterprise / Marked out anew, its exigent of wit / Apportioned, she at liberty to sit / And scheme against the next emergence, […]1840 March, Robert Browning, “Book the Third”, in Sordello, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 102:

Law UK, Obsolete A writ in proceedings before outlawry.

They also make forthe writs of executions, and of seifin, writs of super seders, for appearance to exigents1607, John Cowell, The Interpreter: