must needs

English

Alternative forms

• needs must

Verb

must needs (third-person singular simple present must needs, no present participle, simple past must needs, no past participle)

1. (dated) A pleonastic intensification of must using the adverb needs, meaning “must necessarily”.
   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     […] I have spoke thus much
     To mitigate the justice of thy plea;
     Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
     Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.

   • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput), pages 226–227:

     I remember, before the Dwarf left the Queen, he followed us one day into thoſe gardens, and my Nurſe having ſet me down, he and I being cloſe together, near ſome Dwarf Apple trees, I muſt need ſhew my Wit, by a ſilly Alluſion between him and the Trees, which happens to hold in their Language as it doth in ours.

   • 1901, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter X, in The Hound of the Baskervilles:

     To do so would be to descend to the level of these poor peasants who are not content with a mere fiend-dog, but must needs describe him with hell-fire shooting from his mouth and eyes.

   • 1910, H. G. Wells, The History of Mr. Polly:

     It seemed to him this must needs be a marvel.

See also

• needs must when the devil drives

Anagrams

• mutedness, needs must