require Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb require as useful, just, or proper
    call for; necessitate; involve; need; take; demand; ask; postulate.
    • It takes nerve to do what she did
    • success usually requires hard work
    • This job asks a lot of patience and skill
    • This position demands a lot of personal sacrifice
    • This dinner calls for a spectacular dessert
    • This intervention does not postulate a patient's consent
  2. verb consider obligatory; request and expect
    ask; expect.
    • We require our secretary to be on time
    • Aren't we asking too much of these children?
    • I expect my students to arrive in time for their lessons
  3. verb make someone do something
    command.
  4. verb have need of
    need; want.
    • This piano wants the attention of a competent tuner

WordNet

Re*quire" transitive verb
Etymology
OE. requeren, requiren, OF. requerre, F. requrir; L. pref. re- re- + quaerere to ask; cf. L. requirere. See Query, and cf. Request, Requisite.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Required present participle & verbal noun Requiring
Definitions
  1. To demand; to insist upon having; to claim as by right and authority; to exact; as, to require the surrender of property.
    Shall I say to Cæsar What you require of him? Shak.
    By nature did what was by law required. Dryden.
  2. To demand or exact as indispensable; to need.
    just gave what life required, and gave no more. Goldsmith.
    The two last [biographies] require to be particularly noticed. J. A. Symonds.
  3. To ask as a favor; to request.
    I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way. Ezra viii. 22.
    Syn. -- To claim; exact; enjoin; prescribe; direct; order; demand; need.

Webster 1913