exigent

adj

1. Urgent; pressing; needing immediate action.

   “2003, Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations, U.S. Department of Defence Article 2 also provides that acts of torture cannot be justified on the grounds of exigent circumstances, such as state of war or public emergency, or on orders from a superior officer or public authority.”

2. Demanding; requiring great effort.

noun

1. (archaic)Extremity; end; limit; pressing urgency.

   “Theſe Eyes, like Lampes, whoſe waſting Oyle is ſpent, / Waxe dimme, as drawing to their Exigent.”

   “Therefore as one complaineth, that always in the Senate of Rome [Cicero 5° de finibus.], there was one or other that called for an interpreter: ſo leſt the Church be driuen to the like exigent, it is neceſſary to haue tranſlations in a readineſſe.”

2. (archaic)The amount that is required.

   “[H]is enterprise / Marked out anew, its exigent of wit / Apportioned, she at liberty to sit / And scheme against the next emergence, […]”

3. (British, obsolete)A writ in proceedings before outlawry.

   “They also make forthe writs of executions, and of seifin, writs of super seders, for appearance to exigents”