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needs must when the devil drives. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
needs must when the devil drives, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
needs must when the devil drives in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Needs (“of necessity, necessarily”, adverb) must (“one must”, impersonal) when the devil drives.
Proverb
needs must when the devil drives
- There is sometimes no choice but to do some specific thing.
1664, Charles Cotton, Scarronides; or, Virgile Travestie:He needs must goe, the Devil drives.
1623, William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well:My poor body, madam, requires it: I am driven on by the flesh; and he must needs go that the devil drives.
1956, Gerald Durrell, “The Talking Flowers”, in My Family and Other Animals, Harmondsworth, Middlesex : Penguin Books, published 1959 (1974 printing), →OCLC, page 221:I doubt we can make it on foot, laden as we are. Dear me! I think we had better have a cab. An extravagance, of course, but needs must where the devil drives, eh?
Synonyms
Translations
there is sometimes no choice but to do something