demand

demand vb Demand, claim, require, exact are comparable not as close synonyms but as sharing the basic meaning to ask or call for something as due or as necessary or as strongly desired.

Demand strongly implies peremptoriness or insistency; if the subject is a person or sometimes an expression of his will (as a law), it usually implies that he possesses or believes he possesses the right or the authority not only to issue a peremptory request but also to expect its being regarded as a command

{

the physician demanded payment of his bill

}

{

the court demands fair treatment of the accused by the prosecutor

}

{

the father demanded knowledge of what had occurred during his absence from home

}

{

can he [the keeper of a public record] refuse a copy thereof to a person demanding it on the terms prescribed by law?— John Marshall

}

{

instincts which the conventions of good manners and the imperatives of morality demand that they should repress— Huxley

}

If the subject of the verb is a thing, the verb implies the call of necessity or of imperative need

{

the fire that the cool evenings of early spring demanded— Mary Austin

}

{

the mind and body of a child demand a great deal of play— Russell

}

{

he is best in his plays when dealing with situations which do not demand great emotional concentration— T. S. Eliot

}

Claim implies a demanding either of the delivery or concession of something due one as one's own, one's right, or one's prerogative or of the admission or recognition of something which one asserts or affirms; thus, one who claims a piece of property demands its delivery to him as his own; one who claims that he has solved a problem demands recognition of the truth of his assertion

{

there is no right to freedom or life. But each man does claim such freedom— Alexander

}

{

a genius, say his detractors, can be perverse, and they claim the right to tell this genius when and where and why he is perverse— Read

}

Require is often used interchangeably with demand, but it usually distinctively implies imperativeness such as arises from inner necessity

{

Consecutive thinking absolutely requires personal initiative— Eliot

}

or the compulsion of law or regulation

{

require that every member of the bank's staff be bonded

}

or the exigencies of the situation

{

I shall not go away till you have given me the assurance I require— Austen

}

Exact implies not only demanding something but getting what one demands

{

exact payment of overdue rent

}

{

exact a promise from a friend

}

{

she . . . kept a keen eye on her Court, and exacted prompt and willing obedience from king and archbishops— Henry Adams

}

{

the mistake of exacting reparations in money and then lending Germany the money with which to pay— Truman

}

Analogous words: request, *ask, solicit: order, *command, charge, enjoin, direct, bid: call, *summon, summons, cite

Contrasted words: waive, resign, *relinquish: concede, allow, *grant