- resource
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2 Resource, resort, expedient, shift, makeshift, stopgap, substitute, surrogate can all denote something to which one turns for help or assistance in difficulty or need when the usual means, instrument, or source of supply fails one, is not at hand, or is unknown to one.Resource applies to an action, activity, person, method, device, or contrivance upon which one falls back when in need of sup-port, assistance, or diversion{
he has exhausted every resource he can think of
}{I must e'en hasten to matters of fact, which is the comfortable resource of dull people— Shenstone
}{I am doomed to be the victim of eternal disappointments; and I have no resource but a pistol— Peacock
}{with all the resources of her slovenliness, she was cunningly protecting herself against him by inducing him to believe she was a slut— Callaghan
}Resort is less often used than resource except when qualified by last or in the phrase "to have resort to"{have resort to a fortune-teller
}{thus the income tax became a . . . last resort— Shaw
}{for many plankters transparency of body is a chief resort for concealment— Coker
}{courts are the ultimate resorts for vindicating the Bill of Rights— Frankfurter
}Expedient applies to a means, device, or contrivance which serves in place of what is usual or ordinary, or sometimes as a means, a device, or a contrivance to accomplish a difficult end easily or without waste of time{everything is brought about . . . through the medium of the author's reflections, which is the clumsiest of all expedients— Scott
}{is not this a desperate expedient, a last refuge likely to appeal only to the leaders of a lost cause?— Krutch
}A shift is commonly a tentative or temporary and often imperfect expedient; the term when applied to plans or stratagems typically implies evasiveness or trickery{the dear delicious shifts I used to be put to, to gain half a minute's conversation with this fellow!— Sheridan
}{not amused by her shifts and her shameful deceit— Tinker
}Makeshift is even more derogatory than shift for it implies substitution of the inferior for the superior and often it imputes carelessness, indifference, or laziness to the one who chooses or makes use of it{his ingenuity had been sharpened by all the recent necessity to employ makeshifts— Forester
}{three or four rooms . . . have been kept nearly habitable by makeshifts of patchings— Pierce
}Stopgap applies to a person or thing that momentarily or temporarily supplies an urgent need or fills a gap, hole, or vacancy{both vigilantes and mass meeting were looked upon as temporary stopgaps, to be disbanded as soon as governmental machinery was provided— Billington
}Substitute (see also SUBSTITUTE 2) does not carry as strong a suggestion of an emergency or exigency as the preceding terms do; the word is applicable to something one chooses, accepts, or prefers, whether rightly or wrongly, rationally or irrationally , in place of the usual or original thing, or which has been invented or devised to take its place or to do its work{a substitute for milk . . . could be manufactured from the soya bean— Heiser
}{daydreams, in adult life, are recognized as more or less pathological, and as a substitute for efforts in the sphere of reality— Russell
}{this mock king who held office for eight days every year was a substitute for the king himself— Frazer
}Surrogate is a somewhat learned word for a substitute{slang is ... a facile surrogate for thought— Lowes
}It is frequently applied to people whether as literal replacements or as replacement figures in psychological or sociological analyses{college presidents or their surrogates appealed for a revival of idealism— Adler
}{to primitive men the cranes were . . . the surrogates of the resurgent sun-god— E. A. Armstrong
}{the relationship to the mother surrogate retains the qualities ... of the little boy's attachment to his mother— Scientific American
}
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
