Phrase guide

needs must when the devil drives

proverb · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

proverb

Meaning 1

There is sometimes no choice but to do some specific thing.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Originally “needs must he go whom the devil drives”, where needs is an adverb with the sense “of necessity”.

Across languages

Translations

8 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Finnish: hätä ei lue lakia — there is sometimes no choice but to do something
  • French: nécessité fait loi — there is sometimes no choice but to do something
  • French: à la guerre comme à la guerre — there is sometimes no choice but to do something
  • German: was sein muss, muss sein — there is sometimes no choice but to do something
  • Russian: нужда научит калачи есть (nužda naučit kalači jestʹ) — there is sometimes no choice but to do something
  • Spanish: a la fuerza ahorcan — there is sometimes no choice but to do something
  • Swedish: nöden har ingen lag — there is sometimes no choice but to do something
  • Ukrainian: біда навчить коржі з маком їсти — there is sometimes no choice but to do something