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.
  • 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.
  • Frenzied; in the state of madness known as must: as, a must elephant.
  • noun Mold or moldiness; fustiness.
  • To grow stale and moldy; contract a sour or musty smell.
  • To make stale and moldy; make musty or sour.
  • 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
  • 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.
  • verb To make musty; to become musty.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • 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.
  • noun A time during which male elephants exhibit increased levels of sexual activity and aggressiveness (also musth)
  • verb modal auxiliary, defective to do with certainty; indicates that the speaker is certain that the subject will have executed the predicate
  • verb modal auxiliary, defective to do as a requirement; indicates that the sentence subject is required as an imperative or directive to execute the sentence predicate, with failure to do so resulting in a negative consequence
  • noun Something that is mandatory or required

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

[Middle English moste, from Old English mōste, past tense of mōtan, to be allowed; see med- in Indo-European roots.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Scottish, from Old French, variant of musc; see musk.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English, from Latin mustum, from neuter of mustus, new, fresh.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably back-formation from musty.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old French must, most, from Latin mustum

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Persian مست (mast, "drunk, inebriated"), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭮𐭲 (mast).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English moste ("must", literally "had to"), from Old English mōste ("had to"), 1st & 3rd person singular past tense of mōtan ("to be allowed, be able to, have the opportunity to, be compelled to, must, may"). Cognate with Dutch moest ("had to"), German musste ("had to"), Swedish måste ("must, have to, be obliged to"). More at mote.

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Examples

Comments

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  • must in the sense of being new wine

    December 27, 2006

  • Quirk of grammar (of the auxiliary verb): it lacks a past tense.

    January 9, 2009

  • Must, a portmanteau of mold and dust.

    November 3, 2021