needs must when the devil drives

English

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Etymology

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Needs (of necessity, necessarily, adverb) must (one must, impersonal) when the devil drives.

Proverb

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needs must when the devil drives

  1. 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 [London]: 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

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Translations

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