Imperative
[ɪm'perətɪv] or [ɪm'pɛrətɪv]
Definition
(noun.) some duty that is essential and urgent.
(adj.) requiring attention or action; 'as nuclear weapons proliferate, preventing war becomes imperative'; 'requests that grew more and more imperative' .
(adj.) relating to verbs in the imperative mood .
Edited by Augustus--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Expressive of command; containing positive command; authoritatively or absolutely directive; commanding; authoritative; as, imperative orders.
(a.) Not to be avoided or evaded; obligatory; binding; compulsory; as, an imperative duty or order.
(a.) Expressive of commund, entreaty, advice, or exhortation; as, the imperative mood.
(n.) The imperative mood; also, a verb in the imperative mood.
Editor: Natasha
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Commanding, authoritative, peremptory.[2]. Binding, obligatory.
Typist: Mabel
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Urgent, irresistible, dictatorial, inexorable, peremptorily, compulsory,obligatory
ANT:Indulgent, lenient, mild, entreative, supplicatory, optional, discretional
Typist: Stanley
Definition
adj. expressive of command: authoritative: peremptory: obligatory.—adv. Imper′atively.—Imperative mood the form of a verb expressing command or advice; Categorical imperative (see under Category).
Checked by Erwin
Examples
- The movements of the enemy may justify, or even make it your imperative duty, to cut loose from your base, and strike for the interior to aid Sherman. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- The need for labour upon the plantations of the West Indies and the south was imperative. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- For if it were, its claims would be incomparable, imperative. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- This imperative hint disturbed George a good deal. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- It seems to have been a fashion with constitution planners in the eighteenth century rather than a reasonable imperative. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- They may possibly clash with more imperative considerations. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Two or three times, the matter in hand became so knotty, that the jackal found it imperative on him to get up, and steep his towels anew. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- For safe and expeditious operation of trains, where the schedule is only one and one-half minutes, it was imperative that grade crossings should be avoided. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- I beg your parding, young man,' demanded Mrs. Raddle, in a louder and more imperative tone. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- This ill-timed defiance might have procured for De Bracy a volley of arrows, but for the hasty and imperative interference of the outlaw Chief. Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- Dorset, as if in obedience to Lily's imperative bidding, had actually returned in time for a late dinner on the yacht. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- He saw that the rules of the service were imperative. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Custom must bow to imperative necessity, they thought; and they decided that, blood feud or no blood feud, Muhammad must die. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- Prompt action on our part was imperative. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Come, said the officer who was guarding me back to Shador; my orders are imperative; there is to be no delay. Edgar Rice Burroughs. The Gods of Mars.
- A new age was beginning with new and greater imperatives, and these nineteenth-century statesmen were but pretending to control events. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Typist: Tabitha