| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| demand |
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| SYLLABICATION: | de·mand |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  d -m nd |
| VERB: | Inflected forms: de·mand·ed, de·mand·ing, de·mands
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To ask for urgently or peremptorily: demand an investigation into the murder; demanding that he leave immediately; demanded to speak to the manager. 2. To claim as just or due: demand repayment of a loan. 3. To ask to be informed of: I demand a reason for this interruption. 4. To require as useful, just, proper, or necessary; call for: a gem that demands a fine setting. 5. Law a. To summon to court. b. To claim formally; lay legal claim to. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | To make a demand. | | NOUN: | 1. The act of demanding. 2. Something demanded: granted the employees' demands. 3. An urgent requirement or need: the heavy demands of her job; the emotional demands of his marriage; an increased oxygen demand. 4. The state of being sought after: in great demand as a speaker. 5. Economics a. The desire to possess a commodity or make use of a service, combined with the ability to purchase it. b. The amount of a commodity or service that people are ready to buy for a given price: Supply should rise to meet demand. 6. Computer Science A coding technique in which a command to read or write is initiated as the need for a new block of data occurs, thus eliminating the need to store data. 7. Law A formal claim. 8. Archaic An emphatic question or inquiry. | | IDIOM: | on demand 1. When presented for payment: a note payable on demand. 2. When needed or asked for: fed the baby on demand. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English demanden, from Old French demander, to charge with doing,and from Medieval Latin d mand re, to demand, both from Latin, to entrust : d-, de- + mandre, to entrust; see man-2 in Appendix I.| OTHER FORMS: | de·manda·ble —ADJECTIVE
de·mander —NOUN
| | SYNONYMS: | demand, claim, exact, require These verbs mean to ask for urgently or insistently: demanding better working conditions; claiming repayment of a debt; exacted obedience from the child; tax payments required by law.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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