Definition of EXPEDIENT

Choose the Right Synonym for expedient

Adjective

expedient, politic, advisable mean dictated by practical or prudent motives. expedient usually implies what is immediately advantageous without regard for ethics or consistent principles. a politically expedient decision politic stresses judiciousness and tactical value but usually implies some lack of candor or sincerity. a politic show of interest advisable applies to what is practical, prudent, or advantageous but lacks the derogatory implication of expedient and politic. sometimes it's advisable to say nothing

Noun

resource, resort, expedient, shift, makeshift, stopgap mean something one turns to in the absence of the usual means or source of supply. resource and resort apply to anything one falls back upon. exhausted all of their resources a last resort expedient may apply to any device or contrivance used when the usual one is not at hand or not possible. a flimsy expedient shift implies a tentative or temporary imperfect expedient. desperate shifts to stave off foreclosure makeshift implies an inferior expedient adopted because of urgent need or allowed through indifference. old equipment employed as a makeshift stopgap applies to something used temporarily as an emergency measure. a new law intended only as a stopgap

Examples of expedient in a Sentence

Adjective Marley found it expedient to maintain social relationships with gunmen and politicans from both political parties. — Robert Palmer, Rolling Stone, 24 Feb. 1994 The marble floor … gave the hall the aspect of a cathedral, and the walls were decorated with aphorisms such as Cicero's THE WELFARE OF THE PEOPLE IS THE HIGHEST LAW, a phrase he found curiously—or at least potentially—expedient in what was certainly designed as a temple to the idea of law. — Tom Clancy, Patriot Games, 1987 Under political pressure and at the urging of Jefferson, Madison finally (but grudgingly) admitted that a bill of rights might help, over time, to instill in the people a greater respect for "the fundamental maxims of free government." But even as he was shepherding the first amendments through Congress, in 1789, he privately described them (amazingly enough) as a "nauseous project," required only for expedient reasons of politics. — Jack N. Rakove, Atlantic, December 1986 They found it expedient to negotiate with the terrorists. Do the right thing, not the expedient thing. Noun In 1882, racing to meet the deadline on Life on the Mississippi, he [Mark Twain] boasted to W. D. Howells that he had managed to churn out 9,500 words in a day, having resorted to the old hack's expedient of copying out large chunks from other people's books … — Jonathan Raban, Times Literary Supplement, 21–27 Sept. 1990 The Viet Cong taught the peasants to dig cave shelters under the sleeping platforms rural Vietnamese cover with mats of woven straw and use as beds. This expedient gave the peasants a handy shelter right inside the house, unless that house happened to be one of those set afire by the napalm or the white phosphorus, called Willy Peter in U.S. military idiom. — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 1988 For government is an expedient, by which men would fain succeed in letting one another alone; and, as has been said, when it is most expedient, the governed are most let alone by it. — Henry David Thoreau, "Civil Disobedience," 1849 For it is plain that every word we speak is in some degree a diminution of our lungs by corrosion, and consequently contributes to the shortening of our lives. An expedient was therefore offered, that since words are only names for things, it would be more convenient for all men to carry about them such things as were necessary to express the particular business they are to discourse on. — Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, 1726 The government chose short-term expedients instead of a real economic policy. We can solve this problem by the simple expedient of taking out another loan.

Recent Examples on the Web: Adjective So for a small state operating under severe constraints, mowing the lawn offers an expedient way of coping with an intractable problem. — Andrew Bacevich, Twin Cities, "Andrew Bacevich: Why President Trump can’t end ‘endless wars’," 13 Dec. 2019 And waiting for a public guardian to be appointed can take months, leaving a professional guardian as the most expedient way to move patients from the hospital to a nursing home or other setting. — Monivette Cordeiro, orlandosentinel.com, "Florida professional guardian Rebecca Fierle: Devoted or dangerous? | Exclusive," 26 July 2019 To expedite their relentless foraging, the ants rapidly build bridges over gaps in their path or across trees, using their own bodies as building blocks to create a smooth and expedient path for their kin. — Quanta Magazine, "The Remarkable Self-Organization of Ants," 9 Apr. 2014 Yet, as the report detailed, the issue of safe streets often remains a low priority, sidelined in favor of politically expedient campaigns to build new roads, and even considered a barrier to efforts to reduce gridlock, congestion, and drive times. — Patrick Sisson, Curbed, "Safer roads in cities are possible, but politics holding us back, says report," 23 Mar. 2018 Since Hilcorp discovered and reported the leak, the company has been working closely with environmental experts and consultants in close coordination with regulators to shut in the leak in a safe and expedient fashion. — Kara Moriarty, Alaska Dispatch News, "Reaction to Hilcorp gas leak ignores history," 13 Mar. 2017 Many legal experts have suggested that the most expedient way to provide reparations to Guatemalan victims is through legislation rather than litigation, perhaps via a public fund such as the one for victims of Tuskegee or 9/11 first responders. — Sushma Subramanian, Slate Magazine, "Worse Than Tuskegee," 26 Feb. 2017 Mr. Kaplinsky and other backers of arbitration argue that the private legal system is a more expedient way to resolve disputes. — Jessica Silver-greenberg And Michael Corkery, New York Times, "What an Arbitration Clause Looks Like," 5 May 2016 So this isn’t at all the cheap or expedient way to go, and for that the Yorks have to be credited after going cheap or expedient in so many previous important moments. — Tim Kawakami, The Mercury News, "A bungled start to the 49ers’ new era–the Yorks fire Baalke and Kelly, and it’s just as awkward as ever," 1 Jan. 2017 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun Using internal resources to provide support is expedient, but those resources are finite. — Wendy Dean, STAT, "Suicides of two health care workers hint at the Covid-19 mental health crisis to come," 30 Apr. 2020 Companies that want to step up and do the most expedient thing to help small businesses today can make their pledge public by joining the #paytoday club here. — Jeanne Sahadi, CNN, "Here are 4 free resources that small businesses can access right now," 16 Apr. 2020 The federal medical privacy law, known as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, prevents agencies from publicly releasing the patient's identity, which would be a more expedient and less time-consuming way to contact them. — John Tuohy, Indianapolis Star, "A bar, car rentals and Moose Lodge: Officials didn't warn those who met coronavirus victim," 24 Mar. 2020 Being expedient and frank helped him close the deals. — Jeanne Sahadi, CNN, "What 12 minutes with a famous CEO can teach you," 23 Jan. 2020 Rather than defend its own constitutional prerogatives, the Senate in past years has acquiesced in the politically expedient myth that its duty to approve or deny treaties can be discarded at the pleasure of the executive of the moment. — WSJ, "The Senate Cedes Its Authority on Climate," 26 Dec. 2018 The governor is supposed to run our state in the most expedient, responsible and inclusive way possible. — oregonlive, "Readers respond: Failed recall sent a strong message," 25 Oct. 2019 His choice of the Kurds to fight IS was expedient but put America at odds with Turkey. — The Economist, "Green light, go Turkey launches an attack on northern Syria," 9 Oct. 2019 Outside the Arctic, jiggering numbers and suppressing scientific reports to promote drilling in ANWR is completely in line with an administration rarely encumbered by empirical fact when fiction is more politically expedient. — BostonGlobe.com, "Bathsheba Demuth is an environmental historian of the Arctic at Brown University, and author of “Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait.”," 21 Sep. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'expedient.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.