[
US
/ɪkˈspidiənt/
]
[ UK /ɛkspˈiːdiənt/ ]
[ UK /ɛkspˈiːdiənt/ ]
ADJECTIVE
-
appropriate to a purpose; practical
in the circumstances it was expedient to express loyalty -
serving to promote your interest
was merciful only when mercy was expedient
NOUN
- a means to an end; not necessarily a principled or ethical one
How To Use expedient In A Sentence
- There is, however, an expedient familiar to conjurers as "changing a card," which, with a little modification, is extensively used by the cardsharping fraternity under the name of "second dealing. VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XI No 4
- It has no influence of ocean depth, positions accurately and rapidly and operates expediently.
- Such of these principles as the Council found expedient at present to formularize, were set forth by it in "The Dogmatic Constitution of the Catholic Faith. History of the Conflict between Religion and Science
- According to Damascene (De Fide Orth. iii, 24), "to pray is to ask becoming things of God"; wherefore it is useless to pray for what is inexpedient, according to James 4: 3, "You ask, and receive not: because you ask amiss. Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province
- An action is expedient when it is suitable to the end in view. Times, Sunday Times
- The Holy Roman Empire ever since the first event of Charles the Great's coronation, when it justified itself as a diplomatical expedient for unifying Western Christendom, had existed more or less as a shadow. Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 The Catholic Reaction
- an inexpedient tactic
- No universal rule can be laid down, but often an expedient can be used to provide reasons without revealing confidential or privileged evidence.
- Combat engineers learn how to breach minefields, lay minefields, set boobytraps, build field-expedient explosives, and other skills that would be very valuable to a terrorist recruit.
- Yet in practice this apparently simple expedient is frequently impossible.
