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- (uncountable) The quality of being fit or suitable to effect some desired end or the purpose intended; suitability for particular circumstance or situation.
- 1810, Thomas Cogan, An Ethical Treatise on the Passions and Affections of the Mind, p. 137:Imperfet governments […] may palliate crimes upon the plea of necessity or expediency; divine wisdom discovers no expediency in vice; […]
- 1828, Richard Whately, Elements of Rhetoric, part II, p. 214:Much declamation may be heard in the present day against “expediency”, as if it were not the proper object of a Deliberative Assembly, and as if it were only pursued by the unprincipled.
- (uncountable) Pursuit of the course of action that brings the desired effect even if it is unjust or unprincipled.
- (obsolete) Haste; dispatch.
- (countable) An expedient.