must

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To do as a requirement

   To do as a requirement; indicates that the sentence subject is required as an imperative or directive to execute the sentence predicate, with failure to do so resulting in a failure or negative consequence.

   • You must arrive in class on time.
   • This door handle must be rotated fully.
   • Everybody told me I must stop worrying, but I couldn't, because I felt there must be something wrong.
2. 2

   To do with certainty

   To do with certainty; indicates that the speaker is certain that the subject will have executed the predicate.

   • If it has rained all day, it must be very wet outside.
   • Where would you have put the keyring? You couldn’t have lost it again! - I must have, because it's nowhere to be found.
   • I said it must be pretty late and I really must go.
3. 3

   Used to indicate that something is very likely, probable, or certain to be true.

   • The children must be asleep by now.
   • There's the doorbell. It must be Dad.
4. ›+ 7 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Something that is mandatory, required or recommended.

      • If you're trekking all day, a map is a must.
      • "There are no musts in my life - I'm free, white, and twenty-one."
   2. 5

      The property of being stale or musty.

   3. 6

      Something that exhibits the property of being stale or musty.

   4. 7

      Fruit juice that will ferment or has fermented, usually from grapes.

      • No sweet grape lies hidden here in the shade of its vine-leaves, No fermenting must fills and o'erflows the deep vats.
   5. 8

      To make musty.

   6. 9

      To become musty.

   7. 10

      Alternative spelling of musth.

      • No animal in the world is so dangerous as an elephant in must.

The neighborhood