ˈrēˌs]ō(ə)rs, rə̇ˈs], rēˈs], ]ȯ(ə)rs, ]ōəs, ]ȯ(ə)s also -ˌz] or -ˈz] noun
( -s )
Etymology: French ressource, from Old French ressourse relief, resource, from resourdre to rise again, relieve, from Latin resurgere to rise again — more at resurrection
1.
a. : a new or a reserve source of supply or support : a fresh or additional stock or store available at need : something in reserve or ready if needed
exhausted every resource
open up new resources to an impoverished culture
b. resources plural : available means (as of a country or business) : computable wealth (as in money, property, products) : immediate and possible sources of revenue
rich natural resources
the book value of a company's resources
2. : something to which one has recourse in difficulty : means of resort in exigency : expedient , stratagem
her usual resource was confession
3. : possibility of relief or recovery — usually used in negative construction
lost without resource
4. : a means of spending or utilizing one's leisure time
Boston at that time offered few healthy resources for boys or men — Henry Adams
5. : capability of or skill in meeting a situation : ability to rise to an occasion : resourcefulness
6. : an accounting asset — usually used in plural
Synonyms:
resort , expedient , shift , makeshift , stopgap , substitute , surrogate : resource may refer to any asset or means benefiting or assisting one, often to an additional, new, previously unused, or reserve asset
the nursing mother feeds the newborn from the resources of her own vitality — H.M.Parshley
almost the only resource upon which people can depend for a living appears to be fish and other animals — Samuel Van Valkenburg & Ellsworth Huntington
in their relative inexperience of the variety of humans and of human beliefs, they all tend to turn inward upon their own limited resources: the primitive to his sacred tribalism, the child to his narcissistic self and body, and the psychotic to the inward resources of his autistic thinking — Weston La Barre
resort in this sense is now uncommon except in the phrases last resort and to have resort to, in which it is close synonym to resource
brotherhood was invoked more wholeheartedly, as the last resort against nihilist desperation — Ignazio Silone
except in revolutionary unions, the strike is used only as a last resort — G.S.Watkins
expedient may apply to any continuance, means, or plan for solution of a particular immediate problem, especially to one not commonly or customarily used
if all fears arise from suggestion, they can be prevented by the simple expedient of not showing fear or aversion before a child — Bertrand Russell
but is not this a desperate expedient, a last refuge likely to appeal only to the leaders of a lost cause — J.W.Krutch
as the war endures, this spirit replaces the aims with which the war was begun by expedients forced on the rulers by the character of the gigantic conflict itself — D.W.Brogan
shift may refer to a temporary or tentative expedient, admittedly imperfect; in reference to plans and stratagems it may suggest dubiousness or trickery
most people who were brought into intimate contact with the two-roomed cottage, not always perhaps including the inhabitants, who had grown up amidst the shifts they enforced, heartily condemned them — G.E.Fussell
makeshift usually designates that which is frankly temporary and inferior and either adopted through urgent need or countenanced through indifference and carelessness
the premises … being only a makeshift until the works … should be finished — F.W.Crofts
like all attempts to pigeonhole human emotions, these classifications are, of course, makeshifts. They have no scientific value whatsoever — H.W.Van Loon
stopgap refers to something used or employed momentarily or temporarily as an emergency measure
both vigilantes and mass meeting were looked upon as temporary stopgaps, to be disbanded as soon as governmental machinery was provided by the United States — R.A.Billington
substitute indicates anything which replaces a thing or article originally or customarily used; it does not necessarily connote anything about merit or cause
peat as a coal substitute
a substitute for milk itself could be manufactured from the soya bean — V.G.Heiser
this mock king who held office for eight days every year was a substitute for the king himself — J.G.Frazer
surrogate is a more learned word for substitute , often used of synthetic products or of replacement figures in psychological and sociological analyses
that is why slang is so insidious and so pervasive; it too is a facile surrogate for thought — J.L.Lowes
his accounts are full, informed, trustworthy, but he does not pretend to the depersonalized objectivity that too often serves as a surrogate for authority in such writing — Howard M. Jones
usually each child thus receives his turn to act as parent- surrogate to a younger child — Allison Davis