Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To have as a requisite or necessity; need or depend on.
  • transitive verb To stipulate as obligatory by authority.
  • transitive verb To demand as obligatory or appropriate.
  • transitive verb To impose an obligation on; compel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To search for; seek.
  • To ask for as a favor; request.
  • To ask or claim, as of right and by authority; demand; insist on having; exact.
  • To ask or order to do something; call on.
  • To have need or necessity for; render necessary or indispensable; demand; need; want.
  • =Syn. 2–4. Request, Beg, etc. (see ask), enjoin (upon), prescribe, direct, command.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To demand; to insist upon having; to claim as by right and authority; to exact.
  • transitive verb To demand or exact as indispensable; to need.
  • transitive verb To ask as a favor; to request.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb have need of
  • verb make someone do something
  • verb consider obligatory; request and expect
  • verb require as useful, just, or proper

Etymologies

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

[Middle English requiren, from Old French requerre, from Vulgar Latin *requaerere, alteration (influenced by quaerere, to seek) of Latin requīrere : re-, re- + quaerere, to seek.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French requerre (French: requérir), from Vulgar Latin *requærere, from Latin requīrō ("I require, seek, ask for").

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