Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To be obliged or required by morality, law, or custom.
- intransitive verb To be compelled, as by a physical necessity or requirement.
- intransitive verb Used to express a command or admonition.
- intransitive verb To be determined to; have as a fixed resolve.
- intransitive verb Used to indicate inevitability or certainty.
- intransitive verb Used to indicate logical probability or presumptive certainty.
- intransitive verb To be required or obliged to go.
- noun Something that is absolutely required or indispensable.
- noun Musk.
- noun The unfermented or fermenting juice expressed from fruit, especially grapes.
- noun The quality or condition of being stale or musty.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To be obliged; be necessarily compelled; be bound or required by physical or moral necessity, or by express command or prohibition, or by the imperative requirements of safety or interest; be necessary or inevitable as a condition or conclusion: as, a man must eat to live; we must obey the laws; you must not delay.
- To grow stale and moldy; contract a sour or musty smell.
- To make stale and moldy; make musty or sour.
- noun New wine; the unfermented juice as pressed from the grape.
- noun . The stage or condition of newness: said of wine.
- noun The pulp of potatoes prepared for fermentation.
- noun Mold or moldiness; fustiness.
- Frenzied; in the state of madness known as must: as, a must elephant.
- noun A condition of strong nervous excitement or frenzy to which elephants are subject, the paroxysms being marked by dangerous irascibility.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The expressed juice of the grape, or other fruit, before fermentation.
- noun Mustiness.
- To be obliged; to be necessitated; -- expressing either physical or moral necessity
- To be morally required; to be necessary or essential to a certain quality, character, end, or result
- verb To make musty; to become musty.
- adjective (Zoöl.) Being in a condition of dangerous frenzy, usually connected with sexual excitement; -- said of adult male elephants which become so at irregular intervals, typicaly due to increased testosterone levels.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A time during which male
elephants exhibit increased levels of sexual activity and aggressiveness (alsomusth ) - verb modal auxiliary, defective to do with
certainty ; indicates that the speaker iscertain that the subject will have executed thepredicate - verb modal auxiliary, defective to do as a
requirement ; indicates that the sentence subject isrequired as an imperative or directive to execute the sentencepredicate , with failure to do so resulting in a negative consequence - noun Something that is
mandatory orrequired - noun Something that exhibits the property of being stale or musty
- noun Fruit juice that will ferment or has fermented, usually grapes
- verb transitive To make
musty . - verb intransitive To become
musty .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun grape juice before or during fermentation
- adjective highly recommended
- noun the quality of smelling or tasting old or stale or mouldy
- noun a necessary or essential thing
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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August 1, 2009 at 1:36 pm must resist……………..must………….resist.
Houston, - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2009
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I must say, though, that most everyone around here is looking at me like we *must* be since I quit my job, all our friends are preggers or have babies and it's been two years of marriage...
autumnal indicators librariane 2007
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You thunk it so it must be…….must be…..must be…WHAT?
Think Progress » Limbaugh on Michael J. Fox: ‘I Take Back None of What I Said’ 2006
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I recalled Speaker Weatherill's advice to the Select Committee on Members 'Interests that 'a Member must be vigilant that his actions do not tend to bring the House into disrepute' and, in particular, that Members who hold financial consultancies must not use their position improperly.
Betty Bothroyd The Autobiography Bothroyd, Betty 1988
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Mike figured that Keku must -- absolutely _must_ -- have the king of hearts.
Unwise Child Randall Garrett 1957
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But he must come back, he _must_ come back, her heart cried over and over again.
The Outdoor Girls at Bluff Point Or a Wreck and a Rescue Laura Lee Hope
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"We must warn Tom -- oh, we _must_ warn him somehow!" she gasped.
Ruth Fielding and the Gypsies The Missing Pearl Necklace Alice B. Emerson
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You must have God with you behind the counter of your shop, or your office, and if God is to be there you _must speak_ the truth.
The Life of Duty, v. 2 A year's plain sermons on the Gospels or Epistles H. J. Wilmot-Buxton
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Any attempt to stop the process of incubation, after the contagion has once been received within the body, or to prevent its being thrown out upon the surface, would destroy the patient's life: the morbid poison must be concocted, and it _must come away by being drawn to the skin as soon as possible_, to prevent its settling in the vital parts, and injuring them.
Hydriatic treatment of Scarlet Fever in its Different Forms Charles Munde
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The present Parliament, however called together, must consider itself the only legitimate, the only constitutional power: it _must_ look into this instrument of government.
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 378, April, 1847 Various
fbharjo commented on the word must
must in the sense of being new wine
December 27, 2006
qroqqa commented on the word must
Quirk of grammar (of the auxiliary verb): it lacks a past tense.
January 9, 2009
natalie_portmanteaux commented on the word must
Must, a portmanteau of mold and dust.
November 3, 2021