‖ nécessaire, n.
(nesesɛr)
Also necessaire.
[Fr. (see necessaire a.).]
A small case, sometimes ornamental, for small articles, as pencils, scissors, tweezers, articles of cosmetics, etc.
| 1800 E. Hervey Mourtray Family III. ix. 177 A chance of his travelling necessaire, and all the apparatus of his toilet, being burned. 1854 Thackeray Newcomes I. xxviii. 266 Gousset empty, tiroirs empty, nécessaire parted for Strasbourg! 1876 Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. I. i. ii. 29 Gwendolen..thrust necklace, cambric..and all into her nécessaire. 1960 Times 16 Feb. 20/7 An old English gold and agate necessaire. 1967 V. Nabokov Speak, Memory (rev. ed.) xiii. 253 The handful of jewels which Natasha, a farsighted old chambermaid,..had swept off a dresser into a nécessaire. 1973 Times 11 Dec. 18/5 A George III gold and enamel nécessaire attributed to James Cox. |